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The International Booker Prize, 2026 winner

Taiwan Travelogue

by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King

Presented as the rediscovered memoir of a Japanese novelist on a lecture tour of Taiwan in 1938, when the island was a Japanese colony, the book follows her travels with the young Taiwanese woman assigned as her interpreter. Their friendship deepens over shared meals and long train journeys, but it is shadowed by an imbalance of power the narrator is slow to see. Invented prefaces and translator’s notes add a sly second layer. It is the first book translated from Mandarin, and the first by a Taiwanese author, to win.

Book detailsAbout Yáng Shuāng-zǐ

About the prize

Launched in 2005 as the Man Booker International Prize, it began as a biennial award for a living writer’s whole body of work; those six awards are listed here as such. Since 2016 it has gone every year to a single novel or story collection translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, chosen from a longlist in spring and a shortlist of six, with the winner named in May. From July 2026 it is funded by Bukhman Philanthropies and carries the name Bukhman International Booker Prize, and the winner’s purse doubles from £50,000 to £100,000, still split between author and translator.

First given
2005
Based in
UK

Winners, year by year

17 winning books since 2005, newest first.

2020s

  1. 2026Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King
  2. 2025Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi
  3. 2024Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann
  4. 2023Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel
  5. 2022Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell
  6. 2021At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop, translated by Anna Moschovakis
  7. 2020The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison

2010s

  1. 2019Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth
  2. 2018Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
  3. 2017A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman, translated by Jessica Cohen
  4. 2016The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
  5. 2015László Krasznahorkai, translated by George Szirtes and Ottilie MulzetFor a body of work (biennial, 2005–2015)
  6. 2013Lydia DavisFor a body of work (biennial, 2005–2015)
  7. 2011Philip RothFor a body of work (biennial, 2005–2015)

2000s

  1. 2009Alice MunroFor a body of work (biennial, 2005–2015)
  2. 2007Chinua AchebeFor a body of work (biennial, 2005–2015)
  3. 2005Ismail KadareFor a body of work (biennial, 2005–2015)

2026 shortlist

Winner announced on 19 May 2026.

Facts checked on 12 October 2026 against en.wikipedia.org, query.wikidata.org, nytimes.com, brittlepaper.com, electricliterature.com, openlibrary.org. The words on this page are Read2Reason’s own.