Taipei Story (Deluxe Limited Edition): R. F. Kuang

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Yellowface and Katabasis comes a wryly funny, quietly devastating coming-of-age novel about grief, language, and the peculiar ache of feeling like a stranger in a place you hoped would feel like home.

College freshman Lily Chen heads to Taipei for a summer language intensive, like so many Chinese American students before her, hoping to finally connect with the culture she inherited but never fully understood. It doesn’t go to plan. Her classes are grueling. Her roommate is driving her up the wall. And one reckless trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows has the whole program whispering.

Then the phone call. Her grandfather has died, and suddenly the questions Lily never got around to asking have no one left to answer them. What follows is a summer of piecing together memories, stories, and silences through attempts at connection that are by turns hilarious and heartbreaking.

The novel asks the questions so many of us carry quietly: What if the diaspora dream of homecoming never comes true? What if learning a language can’t bring you any closer to the people you love? What if your family doesn’t want to share its history? What if you wait too long to ask?

Sharp, tender, and surprisingly funny, this is literary fiction that lingers well after the last page. It’s a natural fit for readers who loved Yellowface, anyone who’s ever felt caught between two worlds, and book clubs looking for a story with real conversation in it.

New on our shelves in hardcover. Pull up a chair by the window, pour something warm, and let Lily’s summer unfold as the fog rolls into the cove.

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