Dear readers, Scribe is overjoyed to announce that Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ , translated by Lin King, has won the 2026 International Booker Prize. Taiwan Travelogue is the first book translated from Mandarin to win the International Booker Prize.
20 May, 2026
Taiwan Travelogue wins the International Booker Prize 2026
‘On a government-sponsored tour of 1930s colonised Taiwan, a Japanese author with an insatiable appetite develops complex feelings towards her local interpreter. Despite the instant spark between the two women, the power imbalance inherent in their relationship proves difficult to navigate. With sumptuous food writing, laugh-out-loud dialogue and metafictional twists, this novel was impossible to put down. Taiwan Travelogue pulls off an incredible double act: it succeeds as both a delicious romance and an incisive postcolonial novel.’
About the International Booker Prize
‘The International Booker Prize recognises the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the winning author and translator. Each shortlisted title will be awarded a prize of £5,000: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator.
In championing works from around the world that have originated in a wide range of languages, the prize fosters an engaged global community of writers and readers whose experiences and interests transcend national borders.’ The International Booker Prize 2026
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Taiwan Travelogue
WINNER OF THE 2026 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
A bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history, and power.
May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.
Soon a Taiwanese woman is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the ‘something’ is.
Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin in 2020 and won Taiwan’s highest literary honour, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.
Lin King
Lin King’s writing and translations have appeared in Boston Review, Joyland, Asymptote, and Columbia Journal.
