Taipei Story: Exclusive Edition (Hardback)

College freshman Lily Chen is off to spend the summer in Taipei at an intensive language program like so many Chinese American students before her, hoping to connect with the culture she inherited but never fully understood. But a promising start quickly unravels. Her classes are grueling, her roommate is driving her insane, and a reckless trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows soon has her classmates viciously gossiping. She feels adrift, a foreigner in a country she thought would feel like home.Then shocking news arrives: Lily’s grandfather has passed away. The loss forces her to grapple with now-unanswerable questions about her family history. As Lily grieves, she’s drawn into a journey of self-discovery—piecing together memories, stories, and silences over a series of hilarious and devastating attempts at connection.Taipei Story asks: What if the diaspora fantasy of homecoming never comes true? What if learning a language can’t bring you any closer to the people you’re trying to reach? What if you search for your family’s history, but your family doesn’t want to share? What if you wait too long to ask the right questions? As Lily struggles for answers, her summer becomes a poignant search for understanding—of herself, her family, and the meaning of home. Please note, this is a digital mock-up and finished copies may differ slightly.⁠ Limited to one per person.

Exclusive Edition with sprayed edge - a Standard Edition is also available  The hugely exciting literary novel from bestselling phenomenon Rebecca F. Kuang: a moving coming-of-age story set in Taiwan, about identity, language, love and grief – for fans of Sally Rooney and Coco Mellors. Taipei Story is the hotly anticipated new novel by Rebecca F. Kuang, an intensely moving exploration of identity and language, love and grief. When Yale student Lily arrives in Taipei for a summer’s study at the National Taiwan University, she’s looking forward to working on her Chinese language and finding her Chinese self. If only it was that simple. When her grandfather suddenly dies, Lily discovers a past so profoundly heartbreaking that she finds herself stuck, unable to move forward. But her grandfather’s story is not her own; none of it happened to her. How can Lily reconcile who she is, with where her family are from, when she is caught between their past and her present?