Taiwan travelogue A novel

Taiwanese author Yáng frames her dizzying English-language debut as a translation of a 1954 Japanese text. Its author, Aoyama Chizuko, is a young Japanese woman and successful writer invited by the Japanese-controlled government of Taiwan to give lectures across the island in 1938. She accepts with enthusiasm, eager to learn about Taiwan's culture. Her interpreter, Ō Chizuru, is a young woman whose guarded charm and extensive knowledge of local cuisine enthrall Aoyama. As she ravenously samples local dishes, she attempts to get closer to Chizuru, who insists friendship is impossible due to their status difference as Mainlander and Islander. Yáng's introduction and back matter blur the line between reality and fiction, inviting readers to imagine what's missing from Aoyama's novel due to its colonial context and the sensibilities of the time. The meta-literary gamesmanship is alluring, though readers may find their patience wearing thin by the fourth afterword. Still, Yáng offers rich reflections on colonialism and translation along with delightful depictions of Taiwanese delicacies. Admirers of metatextual novels like Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore ought to take note. (Nov.)

A (fictional) Japanese writer explores the colorful and complex culinary, linguistic, and political dynamics that shaped life in 1930s Taiwan. Originally published in Mandarin Chinese in 2021, the book is presented as a translation of a rediscovered 1954 Japanese novel by a young writer named Aoyama Chizuko. Based on the fame of a film adaptation of her novelA Record of Youth, Aoyama is invited on a lecture tour by the government-general of Taiwan and a women's group. She lands on a busy, colorful island where "everything teemed and surged toward me under the cobalt sky." Amidst the frenzy of "charades-like gesturing" in the process of negotiating with a marketplace fruit vendor, she is rescued by a charming young woman, who turns out to be her translator. As she and the woman, whom she nicknames Chi-chan, travel together, she finds herself drawn into an increasingly deeper friendship and begins to think that all is not as it seems. For the daughter of a concubine who was sent to live with her mother's poor jute-farming family, Chi-chan reveals an amazing proficiency with languages; she is also well versed in popular culture and remarkably skilled at rolling dice. As Aoyama insists on probing her friend about her past, Chi-chan continues to hold back, insisting that the closeness she longs for is out of reach. Their journey together approaches its end, and Aoyama gets closer to uncovering Chi-chan's true history, but will that bring them closer together or tear them further apart? Yáng's sharp observation blends with sensitive, sometimes subversive political meditations to create a colorful portrait of pre--World War II Taiwan. A moving account of friendship in the shadow of the Japanese Southern Expansion policy. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.