We tried to play it cool, but as it turns out, literary luminary Celeste Ng is a beyond lovely human being to boot. And with that we’ve lost our minds about her a little bit and will probably consider framing this Literary Gallery to festoon our unofficial fan club.
Ng has authored two New York Times-bestselling novels—Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere—the latter of which is being turned into a miniseries, slated to star the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington (!). It’s also worth noting that both of these books (and Ng’s award-winning short story Girls at Play) have been vigorously read and re-read by everyone on our team. If you’re not familiar with her work, take scarcely a ten minute tour of her writing and you’ll get why we’re so in love.
Everything I Never Told You is an utterly un-put-down-able thriller that’s so much more than what it seems. Set in the seventies, it follows a Chinese-American family whose daughter Lydia is found drowned in a lake. It’s full of mystery, emotion, and socio-political poignancy that resonates in 2018. Ng’s irresistibly clever, richly wrought second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, deals with some similar themes—race, class, a deeply humanistic approach to family dynamics—and is equally amazing, if not more so (a hotly contested comparison at our HQ … do yourself a solid and just read both).
While you’re re-acquainting yourself with Ng’s work, get her take on the similar, symbiotic power of art and books, and scroll through her lit + 20x200 print pairings below...
Ng has authored two New York Times-bestselling novels—Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere—the latter of which is being turned into a miniseries, slated to star the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington (!). It’s also worth noting that both of these books (and Ng’s award-winning short story Girls at Play) have been vigorously read and re-read by everyone on our team. If you’re not familiar with her work, take scarcely a ten minute tour of her writing and you’ll get why we’re so in love.
Everything I Never Told You is an utterly un-put-down-able thriller that’s so much more than what it seems. Set in the seventies, it follows a Chinese-American family whose daughter Lydia is found drowned in a lake. It’s full of mystery, emotion, and socio-political poignancy that resonates in 2018. Ng’s irresistibly clever, richly wrought second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, deals with some similar themes—race, class, a deeply humanistic approach to family dynamics—and is equally amazing, if not more so (a hotly contested comparison at our HQ … do yourself a solid and just read both).
While you’re re-acquainting yourself with Ng’s work, get her take on the similar, symbiotic power of art and books, and scroll through her lit + 20x200 print pairings below...
"Art and books are my two great loves: both have the ability to stir up deep emotions, but from completely different directions. Often a book will remind me of a piece of visual art, or vice versa, but the connection is often oblique, and part of the joy for me is figuring out what essential core both of them share—why my brain, or my heart, paired them together." – Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere
Black Marble (Europe and Africa) & Exit West
When the Emperor was Divine & I Am an American, Oakland, CA, March 1942
The Catalogue of Imaginary Beings, Plate No. 199 & The Age of Innocence
We the Animals & We Are Who We Are
Cemetery Rd, 3169-3327, Viewmont, NY & A Field Guide to Getting Lost
The Art of Waiting & slow ending
Old Phone & 300 Arguments
The Celestials & Dandelion Clothesline, Santiago, Chile
Lolie, Jumping on the Bed, 2013 & Marlena
I Want to Show You More & Prunus persica: J.H. Hale
BONUS: we couldn't miss out on Celeste pairing 20x200 art with her own best-seller, could we?
Untitled #6 & Little Fires Everywhere
The 411 on Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng is the author of the New York Times-bestselling novels Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Her writing has been awarded the Massachusetts Book Award and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other honors, and has been translated into more than thirty languages. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Celeste Ng is the author of the New York Times-bestselling novels Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Her writing has been awarded the Massachusetts Book Award and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other honors, and has been translated into more than thirty languages. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
