✪ Winner of 2020 Taipei International Book Fair Awards
✪ Recommended by Cheng Li-Chiun, the former Minister of Culture in Taiwan

“Just because something isn’t recorded online doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. In fact, even if every second of our lives were meticulously documented, it wouldn’t necessarily mean they truly happened.” -- p.283

A novelist is writing a novel. He begins by shaping his protagonist—Lilian, a spirited 27-year-old woman who has just returned to Taipei after studying in New York. But Lilian is no ordinary character. She refuses to be merely written. Instead, she seizes control of the narrative, steering the story in her own direction.

Lilian becomes the mistress of Sen-Hong, a successful middle-aged man who, at 56, appears to have it all. Yet, Lilian represents the youth Sen-Hong can never reclaim, living in a world he no longer understands. While he dismisses social media as shallow and suffocating, Lilian thrives in it, finding freedom and expansiveness in the digital landscape.

Yet, when an offhand remark from Sen-Hong at a dinner with Lilian’s friends spirals into an online scandal, he becomes the target of a relentless digital mob. As their fragile connection is put to the test, Lilian must also confront the deeper, unspoken dissatisfaction that has shaped her view of the world.

Winner of the 2020 Taipei International Book Fair Award, ISLANDS is a thought-provoking metafictional novel that vividly captures generational conflicts, the rise of toxic social media culture, and the fervent youth movements challenging systemic oppression in 2010s Taiwan—echoing the profound sense of anger and powerlessness felt by younger generations across the globe.