Adam's Reviews > Green Island

What an amazing book. I purchased this book along with Taipei from the book depository for my trip to Taiwan over the new year period, but unfortunately The Book Depository didn't travel in time. I usually don't particularly enjoy books that are significantly leveraged on relationships, but this was fantastic.

Green Island is based around a family in Taiwan struggling against the KMT. It is woven around many important historical events in the 20th century after Japan secedes Taiwan to the Chinese, the KMT's escape from the mainland, the white terror, and the UN's recognition of the PRC as the sole China.

Ryan provides inside how these oppressive regimes and world events can influence generations of a single family and have such huge impacts on the lives of individuals, and the struggles and decisions they will be forced to take to keep the ones they love safe.

There were so many locations in this book that I knew of and even traveled through, and I am deeply disappointing I did not get to read it whilst I was traveling. There are many references to events and dates in this book, and Ryan's research was thorough, as they were all spot on.