I'm New Here cover art

I'm New Here

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

I'm New Here

By: Ian Russell-Hsieh
Narrated by: Ian Russell-Hsieh
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £8.61

Buy Now for £8.61

About this listen

 Set in the neon heat of a Taipei summer, Ian Russell-Hsieh’s I’M NEW HERE explores themes of split racial identity, relationships across cultural lines, self-sabotage, and self-determination, all in prose that is whittled to the bone, that is wry, direct and undeniably fresh. Told by a character in existential freefall, this novel propels you through its pages with a propulsive flair and a confidence that are truly exciting.

Fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, Taiwanese-British photographer Sean flies to Taipei to find oblivion. But instead of escape in his parents’ homeland, all he finds is alienation. He spends his first days sleeping feverishly in an anonymous hotel bedroom and his nights chugging cheap coffee and munching on crappy doughnuts at a strip-lit doughnut bar. A chance encounter with a mysterious older man draws him into a friendship whose terms of engagement are quickly blurred, and into a world whose underpinnings seem to be shaking loose. At the same time, Sean embarks on an affair with a local girl, all the while dreaming fretfully of his ex. For every step towards connection, it seems there is a loosening elsewhere in Sean’s sense of self, as the demands of the past and the present begin to take their toll. As Sean’s reality comes ever more unstuck, it’s clear that something’s got to give.
 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction
All stars
Most relevant
This book is outside of my usual genre, but it’s a credit to the author that I felt engaged with the story throughout. Well read by the author. I would recommend this book!

Easy to read and great story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.