'Taiwan Travelogue' wins the 2026 International Booker Prize

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ's Taiwan Travelogue has been awarded the 2026 International Booker Prize, an accolade that recognizes the finest work of fiction translated into English annually. This milestone marks the first time a book translated from Mandarin Chinese has garnered the International Booker.

Both Yang and her translator, Lin King, are noted as the first Taiwanese and Taiwanese-American recipients of this prestigious award, which commemorates its 10th anniversary this year. They will share the £50,000 prize, approximately $67,000.

Judges have characterized Taiwan Travelogue, a previous winner of the 2024 National Book Award for translated literature, as a "captivating, slyly sophisticated" narrative. The novel is framed as a rediscovered (and fictional) travel memoir set in 1930s Taiwan during Japanese occupation, where its two protagonists embark on a culinary journey across the island.

"Taiwan Travelogue pulls off an incredible double feat," stated Natasha Brown, chair of the judging panel, in a press release. "It succeeds as both a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel."

Yang approached the novel with a comparative perspective:

"Both Korea and Taiwan were once colonies of the Japanese Empire, but Koreans seem to feel uniformly resentful of that history, whereas Taiwanese people regard it with a much more conflicted mix of distaste and nostalgia," she expressed in an interview with the Booker Prize Foundation. "I wanted to untangle the complex circumstances that Taiwan's people faced in the past, and to explore what kind of future we ought to strive toward."

In the same interview, Lin King shared her perspective on the novel. She expressed a dislike for historical fiction that is solely focused on bleak narratives.

Taiwan Travelogue, she noted, showcases the diverse experiences of "humour, good food, movies, school, petty fights, and romance" that persist even during challenging historical moments. Additionally, as a queer historical romance, the novel serves as a lens into a largely obscured past—one where characters' identities and experiences are not merely overshadowed by their suffering.

The Booker Prize judges selected Taiwan Travelogue as the winner from a competitive field of 128 submitted books, with six contenders making it to the shortlist.

Among the shortlisted titles were Shida Bazyar's The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran, Ana Paula Maia's On Earth As It Is Beneath, Marie NDiaye's The Witch, The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, and She Who Remains by Rene Karabash.

Each author and translator on the shortlist will receive £5,000 from the prize committee, which will be divided between them.

Last year, the International Booker Prize was awarded to Heart Lamp, a short story collection by Banu Mushtaq that illuminates the lives of girls and women in south Indian Muslim communities.