Taiwan Travelogue: Winner of the 2026 International Booker Prize by Yáng Shuāng-Zi

Taiwan Travelogue: Winner of the 2026 International Booker Prize by Yáng Shuāng-Zi

Winner of the 2026 International Booker Prize

Winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature

Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, Taiwan Travelogue is a bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history and power. Set in May 1938, the young novelist Aoyama Chizuko sails from Japan to Taiwan where her interpreter proffers tantalising glimpses of island life and helps her to taste as much of cuisine as her larger-than-life appetite can bear.

‘Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue is a nesting-doll narrative about colonial power in its many forms’ Shahnaz Habib, New York Times Book Review

‘Within Yáng’s tough assessment of her well-meaning and fundamentally likable narrator lies a plea for introspection on the part of the powerful, and a reminder of what is at stake when that responsibility is neglected.’ Talya Zax, The Atlantic

‘Yáng offers rich reflections on colonialism and translation along with delightful depictions of Taiwanese delicacies.’ Publishers Weekly

‘A (fictional) Japanese writer explores the colourful and complex culinary, linguistic, and political dynamics that shaped life in 1930s Taiwan . . . A moving account of friendship in the shadow of the Japanese Southern Expansion policy.’ Kirkus Reviews

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ is a writer of fiction, essays, manga and video game scripts, and literary criticism. Her works have been translated into Japanese and French.

Lin King’s writing and translations have appeared in Boston Review, Joyland, Asymptote, and Columbia Journal.