'Taiwan Travelogue' U.S. editor surprised by its success

New York, May 23 (CNA) The success of Taiwan Travelogue (臺灣漫遊錄) by Taiwanese novelist Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子) at the 2024 U.S. National Book Awards came as a surprise--even to the editor at its American publisher.

"Since Graywolf [Press] is an independent non-profit publisher, I often think we're doing our own thing and nobody else is going to care. So it's very nice to get that recognition," said Yuka Igarashi, a Japanese-American editor who helped bring Yang's novel to U.S. readers, in a recent interview with CNA.

Translated by Lin King (金翎), the novel won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature in November, becoming the first book from Taiwan to receive the honor.

In mid-May, it also received the China Books Review Award for Outstanding Translated Literature from Chinese language.

Set during the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan and structured around the island's railway system, the novel follows the culinary journey of a Japanese writer, Aoyama Chizuko (青山千鶴子), around Taiwan in 1938 with her Taiwanese interpreter, O Chizuru (王千鶴).

Reflecting on the process, Igarashi said translating the novel was such a unique task that only King could have done it that way.

"For me, this is something that I feel is uniquely suited to [King]," she said, adding that her role as editor was "just to ask the right questions about it and to figure out with Lin how to present it."

Igarashi said the outcome far exceeded her expectations. "None of it was very likely" when they first started talking about the book, she recalled.

She praised the way Yang and King handled deeply Taiwan-specific elements, especially considering that many readers abroad know little about Taiwan and may confuse it with other places.

The novel's rich descriptions of food were among its highlights, Igarashi said, adding that those passages would likely make readers feel hungry.

According to her, many readers in the U.S. found the book "sad," as the two female protagonists do not stay together in the end.

However, she offered a different interpretation: "The book is where they meet again."