是輓歌，也是重新發現自我和歸屬的煙與鏡

✰ 2023普立茲自傳文學獎

✰ 紐約時報十大年度好書

美國台裔作家許華追憶在肇事逃逸事件中過世的大學好友肯。肯出身移日裔家庭，個性截然和他不同，卻成為最好朋友。在緬懷友人之際，許華也直面發現自我和歸屬的過程。

肯出身移民美國數代的日裔家庭，他則是臺灣二代移民。肯代表美國主流文化，和他的個性截然不同。兩人一同體驗香菸夜談、長途駕駛、大學的榮辱日常，竟成為最好的朋友。紐約客雜誌特約作者許華以音樂文化評論見長。他追憶一九九〇年代就讀加州大學柏克萊分校時在肇事逃逸事件中過世的好友，質問無意義的暴力，也直面自己成長和尋找歸屬的過程。
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《紐約客》記者許華新作，《紐約時報》評為最令人期待的書籍。
這是一本關於友誼、悲傷、尋找自我的感人回憶錄，並揭示了藝術所能帶來的慰藉。

在18歲的許華眼中，Ken與其他人一樣，熱愛大衛．馬修、Abercrombie & Fitch和他的兄弟會。Ken是日裔美國家庭，家族世代都住在美國，已然成為主流的一份子，對於許華這個台灣移民二代來說，他喜歡做自己的小誌、逛逛灣區的唱片店，Ken代表著他所定義的自己相反的一切。他們唯一共同點就是，無論他們如何與之互動，美國文化似乎都沒有一個容納他們的地方。

許華和Ken最終成為了朋友，他們的友誼建立在深夜談話、沿著加州海岸的長途驅車旅行以及大學日常生活中共同經歷的各種事。然而，就在不到三年後的某一天，Ken在一起搶劫車輛的事件中遭到無端暴力殺害，他突然離開了他們的生活。

決心保留摯友留下的一切，許華開始寫作。《Stay True》是他自那時以來一直在努力寫作的書。這是一個關於成長的故事，細膩描繪了平凡和非凡的一切，它是一本關於成長、在世界中尋找意義和歸屬、振奮人心的回憶錄。

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art, by the New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu

“This book is exquisite and excruciating and I will be thinking about it for years and years to come.” —Rachel Kushner, New York Times bestselling author of The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room

In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes ’zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to. The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn’t seem to have a place for either of them.

But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.

Determined to hold on to all that was left of one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he’s been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.