‘Taiwan Travelogue’ by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King, wins 2026 International Booker Prize

Taiwanese writer Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s novel Taiwan Travelogue, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King, has won the 2026 International Booker Prize. The award, which carries a prize of £50,000 divided equally between the writer and the translator, was announced at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London on May 19.

The International Booker Prize describes the winning novel “a bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history and power.” Twenty-six-year-old Japanese novelist Aoyama Chizuko arrives in Taiwan, then a Japanese colony, before the Second World War, where she embarks on a culinary tour in the company of her interpreter Chizuko. As a relationship develops between the two women, themes of power, colonialism, and social hierarchies are explored with food as a narrative glue.

According to Natasha Brown, the chair of five-member jury, “This book doesn’t shy away from the complexities (both real and fictional) of its journey into the English language. Instead, it uses the hallmarks of a more traditional text – introductions, footnotes, afterwords – to wrap an intriguing metafictional layer around its core love story. Lin King’s deft translation perfectly conveys the nuances of the novel’s narrative voices.”

The Scroll review of the novel says: “Yáng Shuāng-zĭ’s Taiwan Travelogue is a Matryoshka doll...

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