The Unpassing Summary
Chia-Chia Lin

The Unpassing Overview

Set near Anchorage, Alaska, The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin is an intimate, quiet, and intricately woven drama that follows a Taiwanese-American family during the year following the death of their youngest child. It follows the childhood perspective of Gavin, the ten-year-old middle child, who first contracted the contagious illness which kills his little sister. Gavin narrates the story in the past tense from adulthood, recently after his mother’s death. The novel covers themes of death and guilt, the concept of "unhappening" or undoing, nature, immigration, and loneliness.