Little Fires Everywhere

In orderly, planned Shaker Heights, the Richardson family rents a house to an itinerant artist and her daughter, and the two households slowly entangle. A custody battle over a Chinese-American baby splits the town and forces every character to declare what they believe about motherhood, class and who is entitled to a child. Ng writes with cool precision about people convinced of their own decency, and about the rules a community enforces without ever saying aloud.