Taipei Story
Taiwan

Taipei Story

by Rebecca F. Kuang

Immigration Literary Fiction Contemporary Fiction Fiction 2026

Summary

What if returning to your cultural roots only makes you feel more like a stranger? When college student Lily Chen travels to Taipei for an intensive Chinese-language programme, she hopes to reconnect with the heritage she has never fully understood. Instead, awkward encounters, complicated relationships, and the sudden death of her grandfather leave her questioning everything she thought she knew about her family and herself. As Lily struggles with language, grief, and the silences surrounding her family’s past, she begins to realise that belonging cannot simply be inherited. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Taipei, this intimate coming-of-age novel explores the distance between cultural identity and lived experience—and the difficult search for a place to call home.

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About the author
Rebecca F. Kuang
Rebecca F. Kuang

Rebecca F. Kuang, known professionally as R. F. Kuang, is a Chinese American novelist and scholar celebrated for her ambitious fiction exploring history, power, identity, and colonialism. Born in Guangzhou, China, in 1996, she immigrated to the United States with her family as a child. She studied international history at Georgetown University before earning an MPhil in Chinese Studies from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford. She is pursuing doctoral research in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University, focusing on diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature. Her debut novel, The Poppy War (2018), launched an acclaimed fantasy trilogy. Subsequent works include Babel (2022), Yellowface (2023), and Katabasis (2025). Her fiction has earned numerous honours, including the Nebula, Locus, and British Book Awards.

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Details
Published
2026
Author
Rebecca F. Kuang