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To the east of the east is a place to start anew.

In an era of booming Taiwanese businesses in China, Min-hui's husband disappeared without a trace in Beijing while she lived an undisturbed life of a writer in Taiwan. In search of her husband, Min-hui traveled to Beijing only to find her husband’s fate utterly unknown despite constant reassurances from local authorities. 

Wandering aimlessly in the ancient capital, she encounters the enigmatic Shang-jun, a self-proclaimed human rights activist who seeks refuge in her hotel room. As she contemplates and gradually reveals the discordances of her marriage, the two of read together Min-hui’s work in progress, where a young Qing emperor confined within the Forbidden City becomes captivated by pirate merchant Zheng Zhilong’s tales of the Taiwanese seas and merchant life.

Woven in between are Min-hui’s husband’s series of unsent letters in which he confesses introspections of his life and their marriage, as well as his encounters after leaving Beijing. As Min-hui’s and her husband’s stories unfold, both of them reflect on their true desires for life and ask how can we be free?

First of Ping Lu’s critically acclaimed “Taiwan Trilogy”, To the East of the East is a profound meditation on personal freedom, marriage, and an intricate web of relationships that define both personal destinies and national histories. Masterfully employing her signature multi-layered narrative technique, interweaving the history, two sides of one marriage collected under a common theme of the pursuit of freedom, this work   stands as a remarkable achievement in historical fiction, seamlessly blending personal intimacy with sweeping  historical scope.

As the opening volume of the Taiwan Trilogy, this novel establishes themes that will undoubtedly resonate throughout the series: the relationship between individual agency and historical forces, the ways personal stories reflect larger national narratives, and the endless human capacity to imagine new possibilities even in the most constrained circumstances. To the East of the East confirms Ping Lu’s position as one of contemporary Taiwanese literature's most sophisticated voices. For readers seeking fiction that combines emotional depth with intellectual rigor, this novel offers a journey as rewarding as it is unforgettable.