‘Literature wields power’: Taiwan Travelogue, a 1930s romance just made International Booker Prize history | Books and Literature News
A novel about a Japanese writer who falls in love with her Taiwanese interpreter while touring a colonised island in the 1930s won the 2016 International Booker Prize, claiming one of literature’s most coveted honours for translated fiction for the first time for a Taiwanese author. The book, Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated by Lin King, was announced as the winner at a ceremony at Tate Modern. The £50,000 (approximately Rs 65 lakh) prize, which is divided equally between author and translator, was presented by Natasha Brown. “We’re living through times when it can seem like nuance is in short supply,” Brown said, before presenting the award. “Times when empathy, understanding and even basic human decency is often cast as weakness. Books, I think, offer an antidote. They’re these little empathy machines.” She called the winning book “a shining example of nuanced, layered, sumptuous storytelling.” Taiwan Travelogue is the first book translated from Mandarin Chinese to win the International Booker Prize, and Yáng and King are the first Taiwanese and Taiwanese-American winners in …
