Taipei Story: A Novel | R F Kuang

A Yale freshman travels to Taipei for an immersive Chinese language course in hopes of connecting with her roots in this pensive outing from bestseller Kuang (Yellowface). Lily, the narrator, was born in China and raised in the U.S., where she steadily lost her ability to speak Mandarin amid her determination to assimilate. Though her grandparents still live on the mainland in Guangzhou, where she was born, the narrator chose to study in Taiwan for the summer because the “place had nothing to do with me,” leaving her free to make mistakes. Some of her missteps are unexpected, as when JC, a classmate and internet-famous polyglot, invites her to skip class and visit a hot spring with him. After an awkward sexual encounter, which she’s prepared to brush off as a “funny story between friends,” JC tells others in the program, embellishing the details, and the rumor damages Lily’s relationships with her classmates and teachers. Making matters worse, she learns her grandfather has just passed away, and that she’s lost the chance to talk with both grandparents in their native tongue. Lily’s earnestness is heartfelt and poignant, especially as she reels from grief. The result is a touching story of fading heritage. —Publishers Weekly

Review

"Quiet, moving and thought-provoking, Taipei Story is an examination of how the stories we inherit shape who we are. It will speak to anyone who set out to learn how to belong, only to discover that they first needed to answer the question “Who am I?” - Bookpage

"Hard to put down, harder to forget.” - Stephen King on Yellowface

“Viciously satisfying…addictive.” - New York Times Book Review on Yellowface

"As ever, Kuang raises uncomfortable questions about history, ethnicity, and identity and leaves it for readers to determine whether Lily has come to the right conclusions and how much growing up she still has left to do. A visceral exploration of language as a bridge and a barrier." - Kirkus Reviews

"Reading Yellowface felt like being inside a wild, brutal, psychological knife fight with a deranged clown. A merciless satire that left me screaming inside... from both its horror and humor." - Constance Wu, star of Crazy Rich Asians and author of Making a Scene

"Rich with allusion and illusion, Kuang crafts a witty, gory, harrowing ride that thoroughly roasts the perils and power structures of academia, while never losing sight of what it means to have a fragile, human heart."  - #1 New York Times bestselling author, Leigh Bardugo on Katabasis

“‘Katabasis’ shines with devastatingly real characters and absorbing world building.” - New York Times

“A spellbinding and poignant story that had me riveted to the pages, R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis is more than a novel to savor. This book is an experience. I envy those who get to read it for the first time.”  - Rebecca Ross, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divine Rivals

"Her magnificent novel uses satire to shine a light on systemic racial discrimination and the truth that often hides behind the twisted narratives constructed by those in power." - Booklist (starred review) of Yellowface

Rebecca.F. Kuang is the #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, Yellowface, and Katabasis. Her work has won the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, and British Book Awards. A Marshall Scholar, she has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature.