Leave Society (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781101974476)

From the acclaimed author of Taipei, a bold portrait of a writer working to balance all his lives--artist, son, loner--as he spins the ordinary into something monumental. An engrossing, hopeful novel about life, fiction, and where the two blur together.

In 2014, a novelist named Li leaves Manhattan to visit his parents in Taipei for ten weeks. He doesn't know it yet, but his life will begin to deepen and complexify on this trip. As he flies between these two worlds--year by year, over four years--he will flit in and out of optimism, despair, loneliness, sanity, bouts of chronic pain, and drafts of a new book. He will incite and temper arguments, uncover secrets about nature and history, and try to understand how to live a meaningful life as an artist and a son. But how to fit these pieces of his life together? Where to begin? Or should he leave society altogether?

Exploring everyday events and scenes--waiting rooms, dog walks, family meals--while investigatively venturing to the edges of society, where culture dissolves into mystery, Lin shows what it is to write a novel in real time. Illuminating and deeply felt, as it builds toward a stunning, if unexpected, romance, Leave Society is a masterly story about life and art at the end of history.

A VINTAGE ORIGINAL


Author: Tao Lin
ISBN-10: 1101974478
ISBN-13: 9781101974476
Publisher: Vintage
Language: English
Published: 08/03/2021
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2021
Publishers Weekly 06/21/2021