
In "Yellowface," R.F. Kuang's satirical masterpiece, a white author steals her dead Asian friend's manuscript, igniting a firestorm about cultural appropriation. This provocative bestseller from the acclaimed "Babel" author asks: how far would you go for literary success?
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Imagine waking up next to a dead body and a brilliant unpublished manuscript. This is exactly the moral crossroads where June Hayward finds herself after her successful writer friend Athena Liu chokes to death during a late-night cooking session. Both Yale graduates with identical literary dreams, their paths had diverged dramatically - Athena with bestsellers, awards, and a Netflix deal; June with a failed debut and teaching job at a community college. When June discovers Athena's latest masterpiece - a historical epic about the forgotten Chinese Labour Corps in World War I - she makes a fateful decision. Instead of reporting Athena's death immediately, she copies the manuscript, erases all evidence of Athena's authorship, and submits it as her own work. What begins as opportunism quickly transforms into a calculated literary theft that will test not just June's moral compass but her very identity. The publishing world's response to "The Last Front" is everything June ever dreamed of - multiple publishers bidding aggressively, culminating in a life-changing offer from Eden Press. For the first time, June experiences what it's like to break through publishing's glass ceiling. The editing process becomes a strange exercise in transformation as she works with editor Daniella Woodhouse to make Athena's manuscript more commercially viable - clarifying language, removing untranslated Chinese phrases, changing character names, and softening the ending. "After three editorial rounds, I can't distinguish between her words and mine," June reflects. "I've studied this novel more thoroughly than Athena herself ever did." The success transforms June's professional life overnight. Where she was once ignored at literary events, she's now sought after - editors profess admiration, film agents offer cards, and authors who previously snubbed her act like old friends. At BookCon, June finds herself in an elite circle with bestselling authors who gossip condescendingly about struggling writers. June participates eagerly, relieved to finally be among the successful rather than the pitied. The intoxication of success blinds her completely to the moral implications of her theft.