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Celeste Ng

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://celesteng.com

Twitter

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Member Since

May 2007

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/celesteng

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Celeste Ng is the author of three novels, Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere, and Our Missing Hearts.

Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), was a New York Times bestseller, a
New York Times Notable Book of 2014, Amazon’s #1 Best Book of 2014, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications. Everything I Never Told You was also the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the ALA’s Alex Award. It has been translated into over thirty languages and is being adapted for the screen.

Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere (2017) was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 Indie Next bestseller, and Amazon's Best Fiction Book of 2017. It was named a be ...more

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Hi Celeste, I'm currently reading your book, and am enjoying it. Why did you chose to use the word "Oriental" instead of Asian, when describing your characters? As an Asian woman, the term "Oriental" offends me, as it seems more appropriate a description for rugs than it is me.

Celeste Ng Hi Juliana,

This is a great question--I'm glad you asked! I also don't care for the term "Oriental," myself. But I chose to use it in the book delibera…moreHi Juliana,

This is a great question--I'm glad you asked! I also don't care for the term "Oriental," myself. But I chose to use it in the book deliberately for two reasons.

First, it's the term that would have been used at the time, both by the main characters and the people surrounding them. Relatedly, I wanted to startle the reader a little by using a now-outdated term, to remind readers that we were in an earlier and less progressive era, where people weren't seen as "Asian," but "Oriental."

Thank you for asking!(less)

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Did you have the plot and cast of "Everything I Never Told You" in mind when you started writing it, or did you figure most of it out along the way?

Celeste Ng Hi Dawn,

Thanks for your question! I had the basic plot and cast in mind from the start--I knew, for example, that Lydia would be dead and that she'd d…moreHi Dawn,

Thanks for your question! I had the basic plot and cast in mind from the start--I knew, for example, that Lydia would be dead and that she'd drowned in the lake, and I had a basic idea of why. And I knew the major things that had happened in the family's history. Those actually stayed pretty constant throughout all of the drafts and all the writing. But as I wrote, I figured out *why* those events had happened, and learned much more about each of the characters. For me, writing is always a mix of what I know (or think I know) and what I don't know, of exploration and explanation.(less)

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Celeste Ng’s books

Average rating: 3.97 · 2,108,369 ratings · 158,783 reviews · 17 distinct works • Similar authors

	Little Fires Everywhere 4.07 avg rating — 1,289,171 ratings — published 2017 — 181 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Everything I Never Told You 3.83 avg rating — 601,723 ratings — published 2014 — 151 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Our Missing Hearts 3.79 avg rating — 205,864 ratings — published 2022 — 66 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fourteen Days by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Douglas Preston (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Charlie Jane Anders (Goodreads Author) 3.17 avg rating — 11,010 ratings — published 2024	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Everything I Never Told You / Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Goodreads Author) 3.93 avg rating — 1,266 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Girls, at Play 3.84 avg rating — 251 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Every Little Thing 4.05 avg rating — 221 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Book on the Table: Flash Fiction by Celeste Ng (Goodreads Author), Etgar Keret (Goodreads Author), Katie Crouch (Goodreads Author) 3.75 avg rating — 88 ratings — published 2018	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Celeste Ng Bestselling 3 Books Collection - Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere, Our Missing Hearts 4.15 avg rating — 13 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Short Stories 2025: An Anthology of Award-Winning Literary Fiction Handpicked by Celeste Ng, Showcasing the Art of Short Storytelling by Celeste Ng (Goodreads Author), Nicole A. Lamy really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Little Fires Everywhere Debuts at #7 on the NYT Bestseller List

I'm thrilled to report that in its first week in print, Little Fires Everywhere debuts at #7 on the New York Times Hardcover Bestseller List! (It's also at #8 on the NYT Combined Print & Ebook List, #10 on the Publishers Weekly Bestseller List, #4 on the Indie National List, and Amazon's #8 most sold book.)

Thank you so much, all of you, for your support!

For avid readers, the turning of the calendar year always brings about the particular joys of anticipation. But before we all get swept up in...

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2022 оны 11 сард унших номоо сонгоцгооё.

Хамтдаа унших хүсэлтэй ном байвал нэмээд байгаарай.

Finding Me by Viola Davis

4 votes, 100.0%

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

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Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

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Надад нэр байхгүй, Yu Hua

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