Yang Shuang-zi | Daughter of the soil
Yang Shuang-zi's novel, Taiwan Travelogue, has won the International Booker Prize for 2026, making her the first Taiwanese author to achieve this honor. The book, which explores themes of travel and food through the lens of a historical narrative, has gained significant acclaim since its English translation. Yang's work reflects her cultural identity and the complexities of Taiwan's colonial past.
- ▪Taiwan Travelogue was first developed in 2017 and completed in 2019.
- ▪The novel is set in 1938 and follows a Japanese novelist exploring Taiwan's cuisine.
- ▪Yang Shuang-zi is the first Taiwanese writer to win the International Booker Prize.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Yang Shuang-zi first developed the idea for her genre-bending novel, Taiwan Travelogue, in 2017. In an interview on the Booker Prizes website, she says she formally began work on the book in February 2019 and completed the first draft by August of the same year. Each chapter in it is named after a Taiwanese dish — roasted seeds, jute soup, beef and vegetable hotpot, leftovers soup, and so on. “Research for the novel’s central themes of travel and food changed my life in two obvious ways: my savings went down; my weight went up,” she joked.When she went on stage with her translator, the Taiwanese-American, Lin King, to jointly receive the £50,000 International Booker Prize for 2026 at Tate Modern in London last week, King quipped that Yang had cake on her hands, a detail which “epitomises…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Hindu — Top.
Discussion
0 commentsMore from The Hindu — Top
