Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi and her English translator Lin King won the International Booker Prize for Taiwan Travelogue at the Tate Modern in London on May 19. The award marks the first time a Taiwanese literary work has received the prize, the Taipei Times reported — before this year, Taiwan had only once appeared on the Booker radar, when Wu Ming-yi was longlisted in 2018 for The Stolen Bicycle.
The novel is set in Taiwan during the 1930s under Japanese colonial rule, and judging panel chair Natasha Brown wrote in her citation that the book asks "Can love overcome a power imbalance?" — describing the novel as both a successful love story and an incisive postcolonial work, per the Taipei Times account. Brown called the book "captivating, slyly sophisticated" and said the judges greatly enjoyed the rich discussions sparked by its multiple layers.
The £50,000 prize, equivalent to roughly NT$2.1 million, is split equally between author and translator — a structural feature of the International Booker that reinforces the importance of literary translation. Six titles were shortlisted for the 2026 prize, representing five original languages — Chinese, Bulgarian, French, German and Portuguese. The International Booker honors works of fiction translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.
Taiwan Travelogue was previously announced as a Taiwan literature focus title, and its UK publication is by independent house And Other Stories. The win arrives during a period of heightened international interest in Taiwanese culture and identity, with multiple translated Taiwanese novels reaching English-language markets in the past two years, the Taipei Times reported.
