Joan's picks: Our Missing Hearts and Best of Friends

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. Set in what I think she’d call a dystopian future America, although I don’t think we’re that far away from it – a law called PACT has been passed which stands for Protect American Culture and Tradition, and where persons of Asian origin (PAO) are shunned. Bird is a twelve year old boy who lives a quiet life with his father – his mother was one such PAO and was a dissident who had to leave her family and go into hiding. One day Bird receives a postcard in the mail which he’s sure is from her and sets out on a journey to find her.  Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie. A book about the lifelong friendship between two women whom we first meet in Karachi in 1988, and follow to London where, forty years later, something which happened to them as fourteen year olds comes back to haunt them and really tests their friendship. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.