Taipei Story

by R.F. Kuang

From R.F. Kuang, the acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author of Katabasis and Yellowface, comes a wryly humorous and profoundly moving coming-of-age novel that grapples with grief, language, and culture shock—all set against the backdrop of an unforgettable summer in Taipei.



College freshman Lily Chen is off to spend the summer in Taipei at an intensive language program like so many Chinese American students before her, hoping to connect with the culture she inherited but never fully understood. But a promising start quickly unravels. Her classes are grueling, her roommate is driving her insane, and a reckless trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows soon has her classmates viciously gossiping. She feels adrift, a foreigner in a country she thought would feel like home.

Then shocking news Lily’s grandfather has passed away. The loss forces her to grapple with now-unanswerable questions about her family history. As Lily grieves, she’s drawn into a journey of self-discovery—piecing together memories, stories, and silences over a series of hilarious and devastating attempts at connection.

Taipei Story What if the diaspora fantasy of homecoming never comes true? What if learning a language can’t bring you any closer to the people you’re trying to reach? What if you search for your family’s history, but your family doesn’t want to share? What if you wait too long to ask the right questions? As Lily struggles for answers, her summer becomes a poignant search for understanding—of herself, her family, and the meaning of home.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fantasy, Adult, Romance, Summer

288 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication September 8, 2026

About the author

Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, translator, and award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy and Babel: An Arcane History, among others. 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.

Reviews

[levi (i promise I’ll be more active soon)]

Hope it’s not as bad as babel

[Clace]

The most disappointing news that I have ever gotten. The context it was used in doesn't really make sense or justify the inclusion 😔
__
My only source of happiness this year 🤭

(R.F. Kuang is such a brilliant writer, I'm prepared to fall in love 😋)

[Lala BooksandLala]

gimme

[Nat (ia)]

Cover reveal! I'm (im)patiently waiting for this one...

[ଘRory (Hiatus )]

OMG WE HAVE A COVER and it's giving OFF CHINESE CULTURAL VIBES😍

[Ricarda]

Not every book of hers is a win for me, but I love to see an author experimenting with different genres. Can't wait for a coming-of-age novel featuring grief and culture shock by R.F. Kuang. And what a cool cover too!

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many thanks to William Morrow for the ARC. To start– I have read every single book RF Kuang has published. Yellowface and Babel are god-tier reads for me. But between Katabasis and Taipei Story, I’m TIRED. It feels like Kuang just lives to write stories that show how educated she is. Like Katabasis, Taipei Story felt like a dissertation. Except Taipei Story was more like a dully written travel foodie blog. I don’t think Lily was meant to be likable necessarily, but at least make her interesting! God this was so boring.

[Melanie (meltotheany)]

beyond need right now

♡ signed b&n copies (available as of march 1st)

➛ Babel: An Arcane History ★★★★★
➛ Yellowface ★★★★★
➛ Katabasis ★★★★

1.) The Poppy War ★★★★
2.) The Dragon Republic ★★★★★
2.5) The Drowning Faith ★★★★★
3.) The Burning God ★★★★★

[angelinabvby ۶۟ৎ]

RFK IM COMING FOR YOU

[ishraq ✿ (semi-ia)]

IN R.F. KUANG WE TRUST

[Freefall (ia, find me on discord)]

i don't usually put a lot of emojis or at all in my reviews but this is what i speculate:

the cover: 💓🎍🐼🌸🪷🥟🏮🧧🍙🎴
the story: 😨😨😨😵⚰️☠️💀😐🔪🩸

[vyn targaryen ‎♡‧₊˚]

heard the news and got bricked up (im a girl)

[rina (hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‎ ‎ ੭୧‎ ‎ 5 stars‎ ‎ . ۫

overall thoughts — I have been putting off writing this review because I don't know what else to say other than this was truly amazing!!! The haters can hate all they want, but R.F. Kuang really knows how to write about the Asian experience in such a raw, emotional, and painfully honest way.

Every single one of her books feels so intentional and emotionally sharp, and Taipei Story is no different. It follows Lily Chen during a summer language program in Taipei as she struggles to learn Chinese while trying to reconnect with her culture, identity, and family history. As an immigrant daughter who can understand but not fluently speak my heritage language, I FELT THIS BOOK DEEP IN MY BONES. The shame, the disconnect, the struggle, the fear of sounding unnatural - R.F. Kuang captured all of it perfectly.

She also absolutely hit the nail on the head with grief in this novel. What I loved most is that the grief here feels incredibly internal and realistic. So much of Lily's grief exists inside her own thoughts, memories, regrets, and the questions she realizes she can no longer ask. There's this constant feeling of loss hanging over the story, not just loss of a person but loss of connection, language, history, and understanding.

Some of the side characters are extremely unlikeable, but they're also just a group of young adults all struggling with their own insecurities and personal issues. Even Lily herself is not written to be a perfectly likeable protagonist. That being said, I was still rooting for Lily Chen every step of the way.

Something that really surprised me was the writing style. If you're expecting the style of Babel or even Katabasis, this was very different. The prose feels almost intrusive at times, like we are sitting directly inside Lily's head, experiencing every anxious thought and insecurity. For me, this style completely worked, and I found it very compelling! It made the story feel more intimate and realistic. I could not stop flipping the pages. I read this in one sitting 😭

I also know this book will not work for everyone, and honestly, I think that's part of what makes it interesting. People are going to experience this novel very differently depending on their own relationship with culture, language, identity, and family. R.F. Kuang's writing has always carried an academic quality to it, and yes, that is present here too, but I've always gravitated towards her writing BECAUSE of that. Her writing being intellectual does not make it any less emotional or compelling. If anything, I think it strengthens the themes she explores because there is so much intentionality behind every conversation and observation.

final thoughts — The more I sit with this novel, the more I love it. This one definitely did not disappoint me! I think the Yellowface enthusiasts can expect to love this one as well!! I still cannot believe I got the ARC for my most anticipated release of 2026 😭 YOU'RE KIDDING ME. Anyway, 5 stars (Are we even surprised??).

Thank you to R.F. Kuang and William Morrow for the ARC! Taipei Story releases September 8, 2026.

CW: grief, racism, death

────

finished: 05/09/26 𖥻𓈒 ꒱ ੭
manifested SO hard that i got the arc 😭 finished this a few days ago and basically read it in one sitting - full thoughts/review soon. this is definitely for the yellowface enthusiasts!

started: 05/06/26 𖥻𓈒 ꒱ ੭
ꗃ aapi read #2

[₊ ˚ ale ࿓ ♡ ⋆｡˚]

── ᝰ .ᐟ pre read.
"love story", i don't buy it entirely, but anything, and i mean it, for you, mother kuang.

[zahra]

a coming-of-age story from ms. kuang ??!! SAY LESS WHATTTTT
------------------------------------------------
COVER REVEAL !!! IT'S SO CUTE

[vaishnavi ☆ﾟ⁠.⁠*]

── .✦ pre-read 𖹭.ᐟ
#2: i don't really like the cover atm but i guess it'll grow on me??
#1: I'll read anything this queen writes at this point <3 I am seated. GIVE IT TO ME RIGHT NOWWW!!!!

[Lance]

give this to me NEOWWW pls!

[Ashley (permanent [?] semi-hiatus)]

why am i just finding out about this

[Sava (Fang Runin’s version)]

she writes I read 🫡

[Ayeley &#x1065a; ·˚]

╭──────────.★..─╮
Pre-read
╰─..★.──────────╯

6/03/26:I did not expect that cover ns but I’m still seated!!

18/10/25: Mother writes, I read🙂‍↕️🤏🏾

[Saranya [perhaps, back?]]

pre-release:

Oh. My. God. We got the cover! Wohoooo! Stunning!

[seeraaa ♡]

GIVE IT TO ME RIGHT NOW!! 🫴🏻🫴🏻

[lady magician ౨ৎ]

i just know this will be good

[clicktojointhemafia]

The way I am absolutely ✨ sat✨. A 'coming of age' novel from R.F. Kuang???? Rebecca babes. I know you, so you BETTERRR let them live to come of age!!!

[maria ⋆˙♡]

pre-read: omg 5 stars! [remembers "Katabasis"] hm actually let me wait and read this before I love it

may 15th: I just found out about the whole backlash that this book and Kuang are receiving and just... it's hard to observe how people can be so loud on politics without any resemblance of a grasp on politics. these people are usually the loudest voices in the room, unfortunately. I'm anxious to read this, even more now

[❀]

an r.f. kuang book that's not 1000 pages long, has a beautiful cover and an intriguing summary?
sign me up

[mia ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡]

i'm scared this will be colonial bc she's not taiwanese.............

[Korynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first heard that Kuang was writing a novel called “Taipei Story,” I thought that was a stand-in title for a story she was writing that was set in Taipei; I didn’t realize it was actually the title of her next book! I was shocked when I saw the cover and realized that “Taipei Story” was, in fact, the title.

This novel didn’t initially sound like something I’d want to read as non-fantastical coming-of-age stories aren’t what I usually reach for, but I have read all of R. F. Kuang’s books so far and I will continue to read all future books she writes. I tend to like them, more or less. While I prefer her fantasy novels, I do really like seeing an author write in different genres, especially when they can write authentically about their experience. Kuang’s books feature Chinese characters and focus on moments from Chinese history or culture.

I feel like Taipei Story was an authentic portrayal of a what it’s like to be a Chinese-American student studying abroad in Taiwan for the summer and everything that entails, from difficulties with the nuances of learning a language to the suffocating humidity to the desire to explore the city instead of studying. I did a summer study abroad of sorts when I was in college (though nothing as intense as Lily’s program) in a foreign country that spoke a foreign language, and I could see a lot of similarities between Lily’s experience and mine. I do appreciate that this story feels authentic and realistic.

While I liked the overall story, I did not like that our protagonist Lily had no agency in this book. She let the entire plot happen to her; even if she didn’t like it and didn’t want it to happen, she did nothing to stop it. The hot springs scene made me realize this, and it honestly kind of disgusted me to read that scene. I wish that had never happened. Afterward, I felt like Lily was so detached and emotionless from anything going on around her. She did not connect with one other character in a meaningful way, and I really didn’t like that because it was not fun to read about her at times.

Taipei Story was rather depressing on the surface but had hopeful undertones, and I think that was the intention. Lily’s summer abroad is not going according to plan, but at least she’s learning Chinese so she can one day talk to her grandparents in their native tongue. We already know from the synopsis that Lily’s grandfather dies, and we get to see her live through that grief—not only about his passing but also about her inability to ever speak to him in Chinese and learn his story and history. The rest of the novel after his death is Lily grappling with this understanding and trying to find any sort of connection to him through learning Chinese language and history, but ultimately coming to the realization that her dream of hearing her gonggong tell his own story in Chinese will never come true. So yeah, that’s kind of depressing. But it was genuine in how it was written because her story is based on Kuang losing her own grandfather before she could connect to him in the same way.

In the end, though, I felt like I understood Lily. I understood her frustrations about learning a language she felt like she would never master while also taking pride in her being more fluent than other students she encounters. I understood her desire to connect with her past while also feeling like it wouldn’t matter for her life at all whether she developed that connection or not. I understood her love/hate relationship with her heritage and her family. I think a lot of people will read Lily’s story and understand her too.

Overall, I liked Taipei Story and I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think it’s a book I will revisit. I think it’s my second-least-favorite novel of Kuang’s (after Katabasis; I did not like that book). I would recommend this novel to anybody who has gone through a similar experience to Lily’s—whether that be losing a relative without being able to connect to them first, or experiencing a new culture and language for the first time. People interested in Taiwanese settings and culture will likely also enjoy this book. I’m looking forward to seeing what Kuang writes next.


Side note: I found out after finishing this book and reading some other reviews that apparently people are upset that this book contains mentions of an Israeli character. They are not a main character or a side character or even a tertiary character, they are only a background character. And people are mad at Kuang for writing this background character as being Israeli instead of any other race. Canceling an author or a book merely because it contains a character from a specific country of origin—that is racist, and there’s no other way to put that. Israeli people exist, both inside and outside of Israel, and they do not equal their government. The people do not deserve to be erased just because you disagree with the actions of their government.

I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher via Edelweiss.

[anzhelika ୨ৎ]

that cover is so gorgeous!! it's a need.

[kazzle dazzle]

YESSSSSSSSSSS