Taiwan Travelogue wins International Booker

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translator Lin King won the 2026 International Booker Prize on May 19 for *Taiwan Travelogue*, a novel set in 1930s Japanese-ruled Taiwan that became the first work translated from Mandarin Chinese to take the award. The prize was announced by judges’ chair Natasha Brown at a ceremony in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London, according to the Booker Prizes and multiple contemporaneous reports. (thebookerprizes.com) The award, which honors fiction translated into English, carries a £50,000 purse split equally between author and translator. (thebookerprizes.com) The win also made Yáng and King the first Taiwanese and Taiwanese-American winners of the prize, the Booker organization said. *Taiwan Travelogue* was published in English by And Other Stories on March 5, after first appearing in Mandarin Chinese in 2020. ### Why was this book the one that won? Natasha Brown said the judges chose *Taiwan Travelogue* because it “succeeds as both a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel,” according to the official Booker citation and other reports from the ceremony. (thebookerprizes.com) The judging panel described the book as “captivating” and “slyly sophisticated.” The Booker Prizes said the novel takes the form of a fictional translation of a rediscovered Japanese travel memoir. Its story follows two women on a culinary journey across Taiwan in 1938, using food, language and intimacy to examine colonial power. (thebookerprizes.com) ### What is Taiwan Travelogue about? The book is set in 1930s Taiwan during Japanese rule and centers on a Japanese writer and a Taiwanese woman traveling together through the island’s food culture, according to the Booker Prizes and reviews cited in coverage of the award. (thebookerprizes.com) The novel layers fictional footnotes, afterwords and translator’s notes into the narrative. The New York Times and NPR described it as the first novel originally written in Mandarin to win the International Booker, while the Booker site said the English edition emerged from Yáng’s 2020 Mandarin-language publication. (thebookerprizes.com) That distinction has been central to coverage of the result. ### What did Yáng Shuāng-zǐ say at the ceremony? Yáng used the stage in London to connect the novel’s subject matter to present-day questions of identity and sovereignty. In remarks reported by several outlets, she said: “I refuse to be a second-class citizen in my own land.” (thebookerprizes.com) The Guardian reported that Yáng and King discussed threats from Beijing, LGBTQ+ rights and Taiwan’s history in interviews published after the ceremony. Reuters Connect separately listed the May 19 event in London, confirming the timing and location of the winners’ appearance. (nytimes.com) ### Why does the translator matter so much here? Lin King shares the award under International Booker rules, which divide the prize equally between author and translator. NPR and the Booker organization both noted that King, like Yáng, made history with the result. (theguardian.com) Translation is built into the prize’s structure. The award honors a work of fiction translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, which is why coverage of the win has consistently named King alongside Yáng. (theguardian.com) ### Where can readers find the book next? The Booker Prizes’ library page lists *Taiwan Travelogue* as the 2026 winner and says the English-language edition is published by And Other Stories. The same page notes the book was released on March 5, 2026. (tspr.org) And Other Stories is also the publisher behind the 2025 winner, giving the independent press back-to-back International Booker victories, according to the Booker Prizes announcement. Readers looking for the official winner record can find it on the Booker site, which was updated after the May 19 ceremony. (tspr.org) (thebookerprizes.com 1) (thebookerprizes.com 2)