I loved this book! I was enraptured listening to the tale set in an alternate present in America where after a global financial crisis which crippled the American economy is blamed on China, anti Asian feeling is rife and extends to all East Asians and even to anyone displaying any interest in or sympathies towards Asian people or culture. The government removes children from families it considers to breech these anti-Asian rules to be raised in foster homes where they can be taught ‘proper American values’.
We are told the story from the perspective of 12 year old Bird, who has been raised by his white American father after his ethnically Chinese American mother vanished years earlier. Bird sets out to find his mother and uncovers the underground movement helping the severed families.
In the afterword, the author talks about the inspiration she took from the times children have been taken from their families in this way in the real world such as indigenous children taken to be raised in orphanages, or more recently, refugee children separated from their families. I found this very moving.
(And of course, Lucy Liu’s narrating was awesome!)
Sarah Wray Writer 