The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

I loved the book! I read that The Astonishing Color of After began as historical fiction, inspired by your grandmother’s life in colonial Taiwan. Q: Thanks, Emily, for taking the time for this Q&A. I hope (and believe) they’ll find all this and more in The Astonishing Color of After. My hope for Taiwanese American readers, young ones especially, is that they might feel less alone, that they find stories that reaffirm a sense of community and family, however these takes form.

She is the third culture question, embodied: how do we navigate a space that is neither entirely foreign nor familiar? But Leigh’s introspection is an earnest and sympathetic one. So often I am terrified that Asian American works rely too much on our inherent exoticism, that we’d rather mythologize our ancestors than acknowledge their humanity. Pan’s The Astonishing Color of After is a pulsing tide of grief and wonder, chronicling half-Taiwanese protagonist Leigh’s struggle to understand her mother’s suicide. In the past decade – really, in my own little lifetime – I have seen contemporary Asian American literature evolve from brittle myths of otherness to richer montages spanning history, identity, self, and heritage. Pan, author of The Astonishing Color of After. (Mar.Editor’s Note: I’m so thrilled to share this interview with Emily X.R. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. The subtlety and ambiguity of the supernatural elements place this story in the realm of magical realism, full of ghosts and complex feelings and sending an undeniable message about the power of hope and inner strength. Her narrator, an artist by nature, sees the world through a colorful, complicated lens, and the novel is steeped in its Taiwanese setting. Pan’s emotionally charged debut is a compelling exploration of grief and the insidiousness of depression. At the same time, flashbacks illuminate Leigh’s complicated relationship with her best friend Axel, whom she kissed the day her mother died. Convinced that her mother has been reincarnated as a great red bird and eager to understand what happened, Leigh looks for symbols and meaning in the world around her a stack of incense sticks grants her visions that allow insight into her mother’s past and family history. to Taiwan, where she hopes to come to terms with the tragedy while getting to know the maternal grandparents she has never met.

In the wake of her mother’s suicide, 15-year-old Leigh travels from the U.S.

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan