Taiwan author wins Int’l Booker for ‘slyly sophisticated’ novel
Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi and translator Lin King won the International Booker Prize on May 19 for “Taiwan Travelogue,” a playful postcolonial novel with a culinary bent.
The prestigious award, which was handed out in a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern gallery, recognizes works of fiction from around the world that have been translated into English.
“Taiwan Travelogue” is the first book translated from Mandarin Chinese to win the award, and Yang, born in 1984, is the first Taiwanese winner of the prize, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Set in 1930s Japan-controlled Taiwan, the book poses as a translation of a rediscovered Japanese travel memoir penned by fictional writer Aoyama Chizuko.
