One of the most influential novels to come out of Taiwan in the past decade—a surreal, stirring account of sexual violence from a gifted voice gone too soon.“A harrowing portrait of sexual violence and its thunderous reverberations. Through Jenna Tang’s incisive translation, the reader is brought along a heartbreaking and unflinching journey.”—Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me

Thirteen-year-old Fang Si-Chi lives with her family in an upscale apartment complex in Taiwan. Theirs is a tight-knit community of strict parents and privileged children. She and her neighbor Liu Yi-Ting bond over their love of learning and books. Yet it is their lack of real-world education that makes them kindred spirits.Si-Chi’s innocence is irresistible to Lee Guo-Hua, a revered cram school literature teacher and serial predator who lives in her building. When he offers to tutor the academic-minded girls for free, their parents—unaware of Teacher Lee’s true nature—happily accept. While Yi-Ting’s studies with Lee are straightforward, Si-Chi learns about things no one teaches them in school. For her own salvation, Si- Chi begins to think of her personal hell as her “first love paradise,” where the power of love, no matter how twisted, gives her the strength to survive.Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise is a chilling tale of grooming and its lingering trauma, and the power structures that allow it to flourish.Translated from the Chinese by Jenna TangSponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan)