One hundred years after Denmark installed a forlorn sculpture of the Little Mermaid, the siren-like myth’s many forms and tellings continue to fascinate and draw us in.

In Taipei, Tao Lin's third novel and seventh book, the protagonist takes drugs, falls in "love," and sits down for an interview with a 22-year-old journalist. Here, that journalist—or rather, the woman she's based on—speaks with Lin once again.

Through a haze of anesthetic, a patient on the operating table recognizes her surgeon's voice. Part of the series Household Gods, a collection of stories about our relationship to famous people and how celebrities infiltrate our private lives.