R.F. Kuang for Taipei Story

Rebecca F. Kuang is the #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Katabasis, Yellowface, Babel: An Arcane History and the Poppy War trilogy.

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.

Kuang joins us for her electrifying new novel Taipei Story. This is a profoundly moving coming-of-age story that explores first love, second language and final goodbyes - all set against the backdrop of one unforgettable summer in Taipei.

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.

'Like any great artist, she's not preoccupied with external perception. There is a wildness and freedom to her work that is extraordinary. Her characters are complex and human; nothing feels contrived' TIME MAGAZINE

Please note, due to a tight schedule Rebecca won't be able to dedicate books afterwards. We will have signed first editions of Taipei Story available to collect and purchase at the venue.