Set against the backdrop of colonial Taiwan in the 1930s, this novel powerfully portrays forbidden love, cultural diversity, and history.
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This year's International Booker Prize has been won by 'Taiwan Travelogue'. The novel by Taiwanese author Yang Shuang Ji has been translated from Mandarin Chinese into English by Lin Qing.
'Taiwan Travelogue' was shortlisted for this year's International Booker along with 'Si Hu Remains', The 'Director', 'On Earth as it is Beneath' and 'The Witch'.
The prize money of 50,000 pounds will be shared equally between the author and the translator. The novel is set in Taiwan in the 1930s. At that time, Taiwan was a colony of Japan. The novel features 'forbidden love' and 'Taiwanese cuisine'. The BBC has mentioned that the novel is an old travelogue . Where fictional footnotes are also included.
The jury chair Natasha Brown says that ‘Taiwan Travelogue’ is a successful love story and equally impressive as a novel with a subtle postcolonial sensibility. ‘As a judge, we discussed the many layers of this book in depth,’ she says. ‘It is a fascinating and cleverly refined novel.’
The novel’s main character is Aoyama Chizuko, a fictional Japanese writer, who is sent on a trip to Taiwan by the government. During the trip, she falls in love with Chizuru, a Taiwanese translator. The novel shows love, culture, colonial history and power from their perspectives.
The novel was first published in Mandarin Chinese in 2020. The book has already won several awards.
