Set in Japanese-occupied Taiwan during the 1930s, the novel unfolds as a fictional travel memoir written by a Japanese novelist touring the island alongside her Taiwanese interpreter. Through food, travel, and conversation, the relationship between the two women gradually deepens, revealing tensions shaped by colonial hierarchies and cultural imbalance. The judging panel highlighted the novel’s layered structure, noting how its footnotes, metafictional commentary, and shifting narrative voices create a richly textured meditation on translation, intimacy, and historical memory.
The award crowns an extraordinary journey for Taiwan Travelogue, which was first published in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 before being translated into English by Lin King. The English edition had already earned major recognition, including the 2024 U.S. National Book Award for Translated Literature. Rights to the novel have since been sold in more than 23 international markets, reflecting a growing global appetite for Taiwanese storytelling and translated fiction more broadly. Critics and judges alike noted that King’s translation does more than reproduce the original text; it becomes part of the novel’s artistic architecture, amplifying its multilingual and intercultural dimensions.
In her acceptance speech, Yáng Shuāng-zǐ reflected on the inseparable relationship between literature and politics in Taiwan’s modern history, describing literature as deeply rooted in the realities from which it emerges. Lin King, meanwhile, spoke about the responsibility and joy of bringing Taiwanese voices to English-language readers around the world. Their victory arrives at a time when translated fiction is gaining unprecedented international visibility, while the International Booker Prize continues to redefine literary recognition by placing authors and translators side by side at the centre of the global literary conversation.