年輕的白人女作家茱恩從小嚮往寫作,第一本書出版之後卻不叫好也不叫座,反而她的好友、身為中國移民後裔的雅典娜成了名利雙收的文壇寵兒。某日兩人相約聚餐,雅典娜才提到自己剛寫完的神祕新書,不久後就意外身亡。茱恩在雅典娜家裡發現了新書原稿,當下決定據為己有。
雅典娜的書稿《最後的前線》是一部描寫第一次世界大戰期間華人移工的歷史小說,儘管茱恩對其中的時代、文化背景完全不熟悉,她仍然著手修改投稿,並且替自己換了個帶有「東方風味」的筆名,如願以這本「關注少數族群又具有普世性」的小說與知名出版社簽約。
《最後的前線》的推出讓茱恩獲得了前所未有的成功,但她開始覺得雅典娜的鬼魂糾纏著她──朗讀會上出現了跟雅典娜長相神似的聽眾,網路論壇上有匿名帳號指控她剽竊,接著雅典娜的Instagram帳號竟也恢復活動……!?茱恩的一個個謊言越滾越大,成了作家社群、出版界、乃至擴及全國社會的一場荒謬風暴,她再也不知道這失控的一切該如何收場……
White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.