Taipei Story is the newest novel by RF Kuang, and another example of her exploring genres and not sticking to any one thing.
Three of the team have already read this luckily, and are here to share their thoughts and reviews with you!
Taipei Story by Rebecca F. Kuang
Yale student Lily Chen arrives in Taipei hungry: for family, for culture, for connection.
But her summer of discovery quickly unravels. Her classes are grueling, her roommate unbearable, and a reckless, deeply awkward trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows soon ignites vicious gossip.
Then her grandfather dies. Grieving and adrift, Lily must confront her own questions about the culture she inherited but never fully understood. She embarks on a wryly funny, often devastating search for understanding: of herself, her family, and the meaning of home.
All over one unforgettable summer in Taipei.
I'm always amazed at how Rebecca Kuang can so seamlessly and easily transition into different genres with every book she releases. Taipei Story did not disappoint, I was hooked from the start and devoured this book in less than 24 hours. The story follows Lily Chen who arrives in Taipei to study Mandarin as a Yale student. The moment she arrives and meets her friend Anna, her stay becomes nothing like she imagined it would be.
I really connected with Lily on her journey trying to get closer to her culture and language, it's something I have struggled with throughout my life. Like Lily, as I've gotten older, I have tried to grasp on to more and more of my own Malay culture as I can through food, books, movies and music.
When I was studying Te Reo Māori, one of my lecturers would constantly repeat the whakatauki Nau mai te hapa - Welcome the mistakes. This was one of the main things I took away from this book and was what Lily learned along her language journey. Her constantly trying to be perfect was holding her back, mistakes are how you learn and grow.
Lily's story felt deeply personal for me and will stay with me for a long time. If you have ever felt disconnected or struggled to find where you fit in then this book will be for you. Rebecca proves once again that she is a great author and Taipei Story feels like a personal one for her also.
Taipei Story holds all the promise, forked roads, and general angst of a classic coming of age story. Lily Chen navigates an intensive Mandarin programme over a Summer exchange in Taipei, figuring out where she stands with her classmates and herself in a place where she feels not quite at home and not quite a stranger.
The heat and humidity of Taipei was visceral throughout the book and really paired well with the intense classroom and social atmosphere. I especially enjoyed the focus on language learning in academia as it reminded me of my own Chinese classes at uni! I'm glad mine were nowhere near as intense.
A transportive novel about grief, language and identity
As with are Rebecca’s other novels, Taipei Story won’t be for everyone. It’s a little slow and mundane, a little quieter and personal. I loved it.
Lily is a student spending a summer in Taiwan learning mandarin so she can connect with her family and cultural identity. While there things don’t go as planned and her perfectionist streak struggles with all the errors she makes learning mandarin but also living as an international student in a place where she doesn’t belong but feels like she should. I loved the descriptions of Taiwan and Taipei, the more mundane moments of Lily exploring this new place and its customs and food - it slowed my reading down because I kept having to pause to Google different places so I could see them for myself. I love a book like that - one that invites you along as a fellow visitor.
I also loved the connection between Lily and Kuang, hearing about the inspiration behind this story was very moving while at the Auckland Writer's Festival. Kuang shared her own journey with wanting to learn mandarin, and her experience with the grief of losing her grandfather. This element of the story, the idea that sometimes we just miss our chance and have to deal with that reality, I thought was such an important and impactful part of Taipei Story, and one that will stay with me.
"We spend our lives planning to ask the right questions once our language catches up. We never imagine running out of time before the vocabulary arrives."
If you've read Taipei Story we would love to hear your thoughts too!
Check out R.F. Kuang's other incredible novels below, with everything from historical fantasy to contemporary satire! One thing is for sure, we cannot wait to see what she writes next.
