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Taiwan Travelogue

A Novel

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Taiwan Travelogue

By: Yang Shuang-Zi, Lin King - translator
Narrated by: Sarah Skaer
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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 its authentic cuisine.

Soon a Taiwanese woman—who is younger than she is, and who shares the characters of her name—is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. Chizuru arranges Chizuko's travels and proves to be an exceptional cook. 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.

Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan's highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.

©2020 SpringHill Publishing; English translation copyright 2024 by Lin King (P)2025 Tantor Media
Asian Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction World Literature
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Critic Reviews

WINNER OF THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE

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I just realised that the print version has footnotes throughout which are not captured in audio, but in doing so gave me a really good twist towards the end that I wouldn’t have gotten if the footnotes were somehow included. I need to go back to the print version to see how the footnotes would have added to my experience but listening to it is definitely worthwhile to give you a different awakening. I really enjoyed it. Thank you!

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