Death in Montmartre

In 1995 the young Taiwanese woman writer Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in Pariss Montmartre district leaving behind the autobiographical novel LAST WORDS IN MONTMARTRE Two decades later the novel was published in English by the prestigious New York Review Books bringing Qiu renown in Western literary circles and quickly prompting translations into other European languages Qiu is considered the first openly lesbian novelist in the history of Chinese literature her debut novel NOTES OF A CROCODILE became a Bible for the Taiwanese lesbian community and an underground classic in Taiwan and Hong Kong with an official edition finally published in 2012 DEATH IN MONTMARTRE travels through Taiwan Paris and New York to trace the life of this literary star who enjoyed fame only after her death interviewing literary masters from Taiwan France and the US while discussing LGBTQ culture and lesbian literature from a perspective of equality