Key themes
- The liberal suburb and its limits — tolerance as conditional
- Motherhood in its different forms — chosen, biological, available
- Fire as the ending that was always coming
About this book
Two families collide in a tidy suburb over questions of motherhood and class; quietly explosive.
Published in 2017, Little Fires Everywhere was immediately a bestseller and was adapted into a widely watched television series. Ng grew up in Shaker Heights and drew on its specific character for the novel's setting.
Discussion questions
- The Richardson family represents comfortable progressive liberalism. How does Ng test this liberalism — and where does it fail?
- Mia Warren is the novel's moral centre but also its mystery. How does Ng reveal her character — and what is the novel saying about the relationship between self-determination and community?
- The custody battle over baby Mirabelle is the novel's central conflict. How does Ng refuse to allow an easy answer — and what is she saying about who has the right to claim a child?
- The fire that ends the novel is set by the children. What does Ng achieve by making the children the agents of destruction — rather than the adults who created the conditions for it?
- Little Fires Everywhere is set in Shaker Heights, Ohio — a carefully planned utopian community. What does this setting add to the novel's argument about the limits of planned perfection?
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