Complex, enchanting and heartbreaking in equal measures. Taiwan Travelogue beautifully explores the challenges of love and friendship across an inherent power imbalance' The International Booker Prize 2026 judges

May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She's been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.

Soon, a Taiwanese womanwho is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko's travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It's only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the "something" is.

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng- zǐ is an English book published by Pan Macmillan, listed under Adult, Fiction.