When published in her native Taiwan in 2017, Lin Yi-Han’s debut novel had a huge impact: the story of a 13-year-old girl, Fang Si-Chi, being groomed by a teacher at her “cram” school, it helped motor the country’s #MeToo movement and usher in stricter laws on screening tutors.
But Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise was also to be her only novel: Lin killed herself at 26, just months after publication. Her family revealed that the book was based on Lin’s own experience of sexual abuse. An online manhunt for the real-life teacher – not unlike that following Baby Reindeer recently – ensued.
