Skip to main content

Taiwanese author Kevin Chen to give author talks in the US

  • Date:2022-10-24~2022-10-27
Taiwanese author Kevin Chen to give author talks in the US

From Oct. 24 through 27, Taiwanese author Kevin Chen (陳思宏) will give four author talks in New York and Washington, D.C., to discuss his best-selling novel "Ghost Town (鬼地方)."

"Ghost Town" won multiple literary awards after its release in Taiwan in 2019, and it has already been translated into English, Korean, Vietnamese, Italian, and other languages. The English version, translated by Darryl Sterk, was first published by Europa Editions in the UK this August and will be available in the US on Oct. 25. The novel has attracted global attention and was listed in the New York Times' 2022 Booklist, "33 Works of Fiction and Poetry Coming This Fall."

The story is about a small town in Taiwan's countryside and a family haunted by its own ghosts. The protagonist, Chen Tien-Hong, has just been released from prison after killing his boyfriend, and he returns from Berlin to his desolate hometown, Yongjing, the same place he fled years ago to escape from family expectations and seek acceptance as a gay man.

Kevin Chen began his career as an actor, starring in Taiwanese and German films. Now a writer based in Berlin, Germany, he has published several novels and short story collections, including Attitude, Flower from Fingernail, Ghosts by Torchlight, Rebellious Berlin, and Three Ways to Get Rid of Allergies. Ghost Town is Kevin Chen's first novel to be released in English.

With the support of the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, Kevin Chen will visit New York Public Library, Hunter College, Queens Public Library-Bayside, and George Washington University in October to discuss Ghost Town.