Spent Bullets

With Taiwan Travelogue winning the 2026 International Booker Prize, Taiwanese literature in translation has achieved new heights of visibility in the Anglosphere.

In this episode of the New Books Network, we chat with writer and translator Kevin Wang about his English language rendition of Spent Bullets (HarperCollins, 2025), another Taiwanese novel that Taiwan Travelogue’s translator Lin King herself recommended to English-language readers.

Written by a former Google engineer using the pen name Terao Tetsuya, Spent Bullets contains nine interconnected stories about a group of Taiwanese men as they journey through Taiwan’s most prestigious schools to Silicon Valley’s hottest tech companies.

Despite being the “elite”, these characters find themselves mired in a swamp of nihilism, resorting to suicide attempts and sadomasochism as outlets for their constantly oppressed psyches. The novel represents a darkly humorous take on Taiwan’s omnipresent achievement culture, as well as another critically celebrated example of the island’s burgeoning body of queer literature.

Other works that Kevin mentions in the podcast:

1. Kink: Stories — by R.O. Kwan and Garth Greenwell

2. Overfitting — by Terao Tetsuya, still pending translation

3. Mobu’s Diary —by Kathy Lam, translated by Kevin Wang and Cindy Ko

4. Kevin's recent interview by Michelle Kuo and Albert Wu, in which he discusses communities in Taipei in greater detail

Anthony Kao is a writer who intersects international affairs and cultural criticism. He founded/edits Cinema Escapist—a publication exploring the sociopolitical context behind global film and television—and also writes for outlets like The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, and Eater.