Taiwan Travelogue scripts history with International Booker Prize win

Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translator Lin King have won the 2026 International Booker Prize for Taiwan Travelogue, making it the first book translated from Mandarin Chinese to receive the prestigious literary honour.

The winners were announced at a ceremony held at London’s Tate Modern on May 19. The annual prize, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, recognises the best works of fiction translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. The £50,000 prize money will be shared equally between the author and translator.

Originally published in Mandarin in 2020, Taiwan Travelogue is set in Japanese-occupied Taiwan in 1938. The novel follows a Japanese writer who travels across the island on a food tour accompanied by a Taiwanese interpreter. Through their journey, the story explores colonial rule, language, cultural identity and the complex relationship between Taiwan and Japan during the period.

Judges praised the book for blending historical fiction with themes of memory, power and identity. Chair of judges Natasha Brown described it as “a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel”, noting its layered storytelling and unconventional narrative structure.

The novel also stands out for its metafictional style, featuring fictional footnotes, translator’s notes and commentary woven into the main narrative. Its English edition, published by independent press And Other Stories, had previously won the US National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024.

The win is being seen as a landmark moment for Taiwanese literature internationally, with Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Lin King becoming the first Taiwanese and Taiwanese-American winners of the International Booker Prize.