At an age where he should be riding his bike and upping his video game scores, Bird is growing up in a country ruled by PACT (the Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act), a set of laws established after “the Crisis,” which mostly targets those of Asian descent. In “Our Missing Hearts,” Noah Gardner, a 12-year-old Chinese American boy nicknamed Bird, is living with his father in subsidized housing at Harvard University (where Ng graduated with her English degree in 2002). It’s also the time where you start realizing that your parents had a life before you and that they’re actual people.” Like this has been the frame of your life so far and suddenly you realize there’s stuff outside the frame. “It’s that time where you start learning about what happened in the world before you and you get a sense of the bigger picture. They’re not children anymore, but they’re figuring out what their context is,” she says.

Ng, in Toronto for a promotional tour - her latest title has been named Book of the Year by Indigo Books & Music - says she’s always been drawn to writing adolescent characters even before she became the mom to her own tween. Her latest bestseller, “Our Missing Hearts,” continues to explore family dynamics through the observant lens of youth - in this case, set in a frightening world that looks uncomfortably similar to our own.

Over three novels, starting with 2014’s debut “ Everything I Never Told You” and the blockbuster “Little Fires Everywhere,” Celeste Ng has shown a remarkable capacity for tapping into that soon-to-be teen spirit with realness and empathy.

But there is also quiet beauty beyond the pimples and eye rolls during this time of inquisitiveness and emotional growth, even if we don’t remember the good parts. Hormones churn, bodies are uncontrollable, minds spiral with unsettling thoughts. Adolescence can be excruciating, even to think back upon.

Our missing hearts a novel