Travelogue wins International Booker Prize for Taiwan

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translator Lin King won the 2026 International Booker Prize on May 19 for *Taiwan Travelogue*, the Booker Prize Foundation said. The award was announced at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern by Natasha Brown, chair of the 2026 judging panel. The foundation said the book is the first work translated from Mandarin Chinese to win the prize. The £50,000 award is divided equally between author and translator. ### What exactly won — and who shares the prize? *Taiwan Travelogue* is credited to Taiwanese writer Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Taiwanese-American translator Lin King. The International Booker Prize is awarded to a work of long-form fiction or a short-story collection translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, and the prize money is split evenly between author and translator, according to the Booker Prize Foundation. (thebookerprizes.com) The 2026 prize marked the award’s 10th anniversary, NPR reported, and the win was also a first for both a Taiwanese author and a Taiwanese-American translator. ### What is *Taiwan Travelogue* about? The Booker Prize Foundation described the novel as a fictional translation of a rediscovered Japanese travel memoir set in 1930s Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule. (thebookerprizes.com) It said the book explores history, power, class, colonialism and love through the story of two women on a culinary tour across the island. (npr.org) The foundation’s background note says the story follows Aoyama Chizuko, a young Japanese novelist who arrives in Taiwan in May 1938, and a Taiwanese interpreter, Chizuru, who accompanies her on the trip. Their travels unfold through food, train journeys and conversation, while the novel layers romance with questions of language and power. (thebookerprizes.com) ### Why did the judges pick this book? Natasha Brown said in the official citation that the novel asks, “Can love overcome a power imbalance?” Brown said the book “teases out the nuances of this question against a backdrop of 1930s Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule.” She also said Lin King’s translation “perfectly conveys the nuances of the novel’s narrative voices.” (thebookerprizes.com) Brown said the novel “pulls off an incredible double feat” because it works “as both a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel.” She called it “a captivating, slyly sophisticated novel,” according to the Booker Prize Foundation’s winner feature. ### Why is this win being described as historic? (thebookerprizes.com) The Booker Prize Foundation said *Taiwan Travelogue* is the first book translated from Mandarin Chinese to win the International Booker Prize. NPR separately reported that it is the first Taiwanese and Taiwanese-American winning pairing in the award’s history. The 2026 shortlist included six books: *The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran*, *She Who Remains*, *The Director*, *On Earth As It Is Beneath*, *The Witch* and *Taiwan Travelogue*, according to the foundation’s prize page. (thebookerprizes.com) ### Where can readers find the official citation and shortlist? The Booker Prize Foundation has published the 2026 International Booker Prize page with the winner, shortlist and judging panel, along with a separate feature on *Taiwan Travelogue* that includes the judges’ citation and plot details. (thebookerprizes.com) The winner was announced on May 19, 2026, at Tate Modern in London.