A novel about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner grows up in a controlled society where strict laws shape everyday life, books are censored, and children of dissidents are often taken away. Living quietly with his father, a former linguist now working in a university library, Bird has been taught not to ask questions or attract attention. His mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who disappeared years earlier, is a figure he has been told not to think about—until a mysterious message pulls him into a search for her. As Bird follows clues through forbidden stories, hidden networks of librarians, and forgotten histories, he begins to uncover the truth about his mother and the world he lives in, leading him toward a journey that could change everything.