**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.
