Taipei Story

Lily Chen Goes Looking for a Home She Never Knew

R. F. Kuang's Taipei Story follows college freshman Lily Chen into an intensive summer language program in Taiwan. She hopes Mandarin and physical proximity will connect her to the culture she inherited, but the city does not provide an effortless homecoming. Grueling classes, a maddening roommate, and gossip after an awkward hot-springs trip leave her feeling more foreign than before.

Grief Makes Every Question Urgent

When Lily's grandfather dies, the family history she meant to uncover suddenly contains answers she may never receive. Her search moves through memories, stories, and carefully maintained silences as she tries to understand what her relatives chose to share and what they kept buried. Language becomes both a bridge and proof that fluency cannot guarantee closeness.

A Coming-of-Age Story With No Easy Return

Kuang brings wry humor to Lily's social disasters without softening the loneliness underneath them. The novel asks what happens when the diaspora dream of returning home runs into a place with its own history and a family reluctant to explain theirs. Lily has to build an idea of belonging that can survive disappointment.

Taipei Story reaches shelves in September 2026. After the publishing satire of Yellowface and the fantasy of Katabasis, Kuang is turning to an intimate contemporary story about culture shock, first love, grief, and the questions people wait too long to ask.