Little Fires Everywhere – Ng Celeste (2018)

Amazon.com’s number-one fiction pick of 2017 and winner of the Goodreads Readers Choice Award for Fiction 2017, this novel follows the lives of two families in Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland where everything is meticulously planned, from the winding roads and house colours to the successful lives its residents are expected to lead. No one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is to play by the rules. Then Mia Warren, an enigmatic artist and single mother, arrives with her teenage daughter Pearl and rents a house from the Richardsons. Mia and Pearl soon become more than tenants, drawing all four Richardson children into their lives. But Mia carries a mysterious past and a disregard for the rules that threatens to disrupt the carefully ordered community. When old family friends try to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle divides the town and places Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena sets out to uncover her secrets, but her obsession comes at an unexpected and devastating cost. Readers describe the novel as beautifully written, thought-provoking, engrossing and filled with brilliant characters.