Taiwan Travelogue Wins 2026 International Booker Prize in London

Taiwan Travelogue, a novel by Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāngzǐ translated by Lin King, has won the 2026 International Booker Prize. The award, which includes a £50,000 prize shared equally between author and translator, was presented at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London. This marks the first time a book translated from Mandarin Chinese has won the prize, and the first win for Taiwanese and Taiwanese-American writers.

The novel is presented as a rediscovered memoir, following a Japanese novelist, Aoyama Chizuko, who travels to Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule in 1938. On a government-sponsored culinary tour, she develops a complex relationship with her Taiwanese interpreter, Chizuru. The book explores themes of colonialism, power, and love through a layered narrative that includes fictional footnotes and afterwords. Chair of the judging panel Natasha Brown described the work as a "captivating, slyly sophisticated novel" that succeeds as both a romance and a postcolonial reckoning. She praised Lin King's translation for conveying the nuanced narrative voices.

In her acceptance speech, Yáng Shuāngzǐ addressed the relationship between literature and politics, stating that...