R.F. Kuang's Taipei Story was published recently and I was excited to pick up my inscribed copy from my local tiny/amazing/passionate bookstore (Narrative in Davis Square, Somerville, MA). I had recently finished Yellowface in a blur of reading and continued into Taipei Story almost immediately.

Reading Taipei Story was unlike anything I had experienced before. Not for the writing style, the topics, or the characters, but for the place. This was the first book I have read where the main character (Lily Chen) followed in my footsteps.

In late 2025/early 2026, I visited Taiwan for the first time. My now husband navigated us through an itinerary that Lily nearly matched in her summer in Taipei. From the 101, to Beitou Hot Springs, to a day trip to the eastern coast towns, and the pilgrimages to see Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the Jadeite Cabbage… these were places where, as Lily described them, I could visualize from my own memories. This strong, visual connection to the page is not one I've experienced before and, in many ways, that connection heightened the emotional response to the text.

Below, the Beitou Library rising next to the hot stream like a green, lush ark. With a distinctive boat shape, this library is one of the prettiest I've visited. Taken 2 January 2026.

The book is, in a sense, a meditation on language, sense of belonging, and the difficulties of family. As I read it, I also connected it to Fifty Sounds (by Polly Barton) which is a memoir that similarly inspects language learning, belonging, and more. They are complementary reads!

If I reflect on the thousands of books I've read, some of the most impactful or memorable have a very strong sense of place. Walden, Swallows and Amazons, East of Eden, Winnie the Pooh. Gosh, it's been nearly three decades since I read Walden and I can picture the text, smell the smell, and see the cool, clear depths of the water marked on the page. I never visited any of the places in those books — not Salinas nor the Lake District — but I so wanted to be in nature, on the water, in the fields, in the copse. Books brought me to places I could only dream about, times before my own, through the magic of the written word I was plopped down in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Have you read books that bring you back to a place you've physically been before? Or read books that connect tightly, thematically, to another? I'd love to hear about them.

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