Yang Shuang-zi Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Shuang-zi Yang, also known as Yang Shuang-zi and born Yang Jo-tzu is a Taiwanese writer.

She was born on July 10, 1984, in Taichung, Taiwan. Her debut novel Taiwan Travelogue came out originally in 2020. It was translated into English by Lin King. The novel would go on to win the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature and then the 2026 International Booker Prize.

Yang was born the older of twin sisters, sharing her life with Yang Jo-hui. The author grew up with an interest in literature while her sister had a deeper interest in history and translation. They decided that they would collaborate on historical fiction using a shared pen name in 2014, deciding on Yang Shuang-zi, which means twins. Jo-hui would do the historical research while her sister Jo-tzu would handle the narrative and plot.

Unfortunately, Jo-hui would learn she had stage three breast cancer in 2009. She passed in 2015. Jo-tzu continued to write using their shared pen name to honor her sister’s memory. She herself thought that her sister became ill due to years of chronic overwork.

The two were born in a military dependents’ village in Wuri, Taichung. Their parents divorced when the twins were 5 years old and their mother would get married again. The girls lived with their father and grandparents, cared for by their grandmother and their father’s girlfriend. Their grandmother passed when they were 14 years old and their father left, which left them debtors. An uncle with addictions was their only caretaker.

From 15 years of age, the twins worked on a part time basis to help support themselves. Jo-tzu found employment at a fried chicken cutlet shop and bakery while Jo-hui worked at an educational materials company. Yang then went to night school for 8 years, three years in the business program and then five years in a continuing education bachelor’s degree program in Chinese language and literature that was hosted at the National Chung Hsing University. During that time she would work in the day and write fiction when she had time.

Yang completed her undergraduate degree in 2008. She was admitted to a grad studies program in literature at National Cheng Kung University but withdrew before she could complete it. The next year, she enrolled in NCHU’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature and Transnational Cultural Studies. She graduated in 2012, focusing her thesis on Taiwanese popular romance fiction.

Yang originally intended to become a manga artist from the time that she was 10. When the local comics industry contracted, she decided that at 14 she would write fiction. She started writing romance fiction, submitting many places before finally getting her first romance novel published in 2003 at 19 years old. She had published four romance novels by 2005, at which time she received two rejections in a row and pulled back so that she could reassess her work, instead shifting to literary fiction and becoming well known for her historical fiction.

Yang was active in ACG subculture as a fan and a creator, as was her sister. They co-founded a doujinshi society Mao Pin in 2009 and also jointly published a doujinshi that was based on ‘Maria Watches Over Us’. The author also got a lot of attention in 2017 with the release of her yuri novel ‘Seasons of Bloom’. Of course, her breakthrough novel Taiwan Travelogue would first be released in 2020, doing well enough that it was translated into English to reach a broader reading audience.

Taiwan Travelogue received many awards and lots of attention. It was the recipient of Taiwan’s 2021 Golden Tripod Award. The Japanese version came out in 2023 and received Japan’s Best Translation Award. The English version was published in 2024 in the United States and in the UK in 2026. The book won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature, the 2025 Baifang Schell Book Prize Award for Outstanding Translated Literature from Chinese language, and the 2026 International Booker Prize. Translation rights for the book have been secured in 22 languages as of May 2026.

Yang is married to writer and fashion influencer Lai Ting-ho.

Taiwan Travelogue is a 2020 novel written by Shuang-zi Yang. Every chapter in this novel is themed around a different Taiwanese dish, which makes this book all the more delightful to read. This book has been called a ‘multi-layered meditation on language and longing’ by the Financial Times and is an incredible work that Publishers Weekly says ‘offers rich reflections on colonialism and translation along with delightful depictions of Taiwanese delicacies’.

The book is the winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Translated Literature and the winner of the 2026 International Booker Prize. If you’ve been looking for something new to add to your to-read list, check out this story and witness the tale of love between two women and so much more.

The setting is May in 1938. Aoyama Chizuko is a young novelist who has sailed all the way from her home located in Nagasaki, Japan, and came to Taiwan. The Japanese government that rules the island has invited her to be there, and she has come even though she doesn’t have that much interest in their official banquets and what she expects to be an imperialist agenda.

Instead, Chizuko really wants to feel what real life is like on the island and to do her best to try and sample as much of its authentic cuisine as her large appetite is able to handle. It’s not long before a young Taiwanese woman is hired to be her interpreter and ends up making her dreams come true.

Chizuru shares some characters of Chizuko’s name and more than that is charming and possesses a great attention to detail. She arranges for Chizuko to travel all over the Land of the South and also shows that she is really quite a good cook.

While they go on train rides and enjoy great talk among braised pork rice and winter melon tea, Chizuko starts to develop a crush on her companion. In fact, she has grown infatuated with her and wants to pull her closer. Despite this, Chizuru keeps her distance.

But after a separation Chizuko starts to realize what it was that was causing her to stay away. Sensational in its initial publication, check out Taiwan Travelogue by Shuang-zi Yang to follow along and find out what happens in the end.