LONDON (AP) 鈥� Taiwanese author Y谩ng Shu膩ng-z菒 and translator Lin King won the on Tuesday for 鈥淭aiwan Travelogue,鈥� a historical romance set in Japan-occupied Taiwan in the 1930s.
It is the first novel written in Mandarin Chinese to win the prestigious prize for fiction translated into English.
British novelist Natasha Brown, who chaired the judging panel, called it a 鈥渃aptivating, wryly sophisticated鈥� book that plays with themes of language and power and offers the reader surprises along the way.
The novel purports to be a travel memoir by a Japanese novelist on a culinary tour of Taiwan and charts the 鈥� fictional 鈥� writer鈥檚 complex relationship with her local interpreter.
Brown said the book explores class and colonialism, asking: 鈥淐an love overcome a power imbalance?鈥� She said it 鈥減ulls off an incredible double act: It succeeds both as a romance and as an incisive postcolonial novel.鈥�
Y谩ng, who writes fiction, essays, manga and video game scripts, has said she 鈥渨anted to untangle the complex circumstances鈥� of Taiwan鈥檚 time as a Japanese colony.
鈥淩esearch for the novel鈥檚 central themes of travel and food changed my life in two obvious ways: my savings went down; my weight went up,鈥� she told the Booker Prizes website.
Published in its original language in 2020, 鈥淭aiwan Travelogue鈥� is the first of Y谩ng鈥檚 books to be translated into English. In the U.S., it won the National Book Award鈥檚 translation category in 2024.
The judges praised the way Taiwanese-American translator King鈥檚 translation adds another layer to a book that plays with ideas of communication across languages.
The book beat five other finalists to the prize, which recognizes translated fiction from around the world published in the U.K. or Ireland. The 50,000 pounds ($67,000) in prize money is split by author and translator.
The International Booker was set up to boost the profile of fiction in other languages 鈥� which accounts for only a small share of books published in Britain 鈥� and to salute the underappreciated work of literary translators.
It is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction, which will be handed out in the fall, and the Children鈥檚 Booker Prize, which will be awarded for the first time next year.
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