May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear. Soon a Taiwanese woman—who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name—is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the “something” is.
A delightfully slippery novel about how power shapes relationships, and what travel reveals and conceals ... Disorienting ... It is worth remembering that much of this paratext, fictional and real, is written in a world that has changed drastically since the characters’ travels and the heyday of Japanese imperialism.
Layers of commentary serve to make the story’s emotional center more difficult to access, and more fulfilling once you’ve earned it ... A straightforward story surrounded by many twisting layers of mystery.
