Elaine Hsieh Chou knows how to keep readers off-balance.

The author made her literary debut in 2022 with the aptly titled novel “Disorientation,” a satire about a Taiwanese American graduate student who sets off a firestorm after discovering that the acclaimed Chinese American poet she’s studying isn’t who everyone thinks he is. The novel drew rave reviews from critics and ended up on best-of-the-year lists.

Chou brings her dark humor and skewed sense of reality to her new book, the short story collection “Where Are You Really From.” The book opens with “Carrot Legs,” about a teenage girl who, along with her cousin, fantasizes about killing and eating a neighbor — and things get even weirder after that. In one story, an older man gets a mail-order bride — actually delivered in a box — fr

See Full Page