Lead Review (Ghost Town)
- Book: Ghost Town
- Location: Berlin, Taiwan
- Author: Kevin Chen
Ghost Town won the Taiwan Literature Award. It is a remarkable book, set in Yongjing in rural Taiwan and in Berlin. Keith Chen is the last child born into a family of five girls and two boys. He suffers an abusive childhood before moving to Berlin with a literary bursary. In Berlin he has a gay relationship with someone known just as T. T is equally troubled and they live a very damaged and tempestuous life. Until, for reasons that become clear near the end off the book, Keith kills T and spends years in a Berlin prison before he is released.
On his release he heads back to Yongjing. But all has changed… The village and its inhabitants are largely unrecognisable. His siblings have scattered and each has his or her own issues to face. They meet up, but not entirely happily. The story of Keith’s childhood in the village is told as a time shift story. It is at times difficult to follow, especially as some of the characters have passed on and speak as ghosts. But it is well worth persevering to learn of the trials and tribulations that he experienced. Family secrets and rural superstitions abound.
We ask why Keith chose to return to Taiwan. He did not have a happy life there, and he moved on. But somehow he is drawn back. The town is (or should be) familiar. It is an oddly safe place to be after all he has been through.
In location terms, Yongjing comes through well. It feels like rural Taiwan, even if some of the characters are a little larger than life. Berlin could be almost any large city. I know the place pretty well, and nothing was recognisable.
Ghost Town is an ambitious book and it very largely works.
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