A departure from Kuang's fantasy work, this is a coming-of-age literary novel about a college freshman studying abroad in Taipei. The main character travels there without having learned Chinese first, and then her grandfather unexpectedly passes away. Kuang has said the book grew out of her own grief after her grandfather's death, and grapples with language, culture shock, and loss. It's described as wry and humorous, in the style of writers like Elif Batuman and Patricia Lockwood. This marks Kuang's pivot from the dark academia of Katabasis to something more intimate and personal.
A departure from Kuang's fantasy work, this is a coming-of-age literary novel about a college freshman studying abroad in Taipei. The main character travels there without having learned Chinese first, and then her grandfather unexpectedly passes away. Kuang has said the book grew out of her own grief after her grandfather's death, and grapples with language, culture shock, and loss. It's described as wry and humorous, in the style of writers like Elif Batuman and Patricia Lockwood. This marks Kuang's pivot from the dark academia of Katabasis to something more intimate and personal.
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