Read First Book Club: Taiwan Travelogue

Read First Bookshop is launching its first English-language book club at Mr Tea on Sunday 18 October, and the first book on the table is Taiwan Travelogue (臺灣漫遊錄). It's a big one to start with: the novel won the 2026 International Booker Prize, and it's the first novel translated from Chinese to ever take the award.

The story is set in 1930s Japanese Taiwan and follows the relationship between Aoyama Chizuko, a Japanese writer, and her Taiwanese translator, Ō Chizuru. The two travel across the island sampling its cuisine, and the session will work its way through selected passages in both English and Chinese. From there, the conversation opens up to the novel's broader themes: colonialism, resistance, and the romantic friendship between the two women, as well as the nuances of translation itself.

Read First is a community bookshop run by Hongkongers, and this is their first foray into an English-language book club, so it's a bit of a milestone for them. The session runs from 1 pm to 3 pm at Mr Tea, 21 Albion Place, LS1 6JS, and tickets are £8.30.