Invited by Mi:Lu Publishing, Taiwanese writers Tong Wei-ger (童偉格) and Chi Ta-wei (紀大偉) participated in the 2025 Book World Prague, where they engaged with readers and shared insights into their creative processes during a book-signing session. The book fair was held from May 15 to 19 in the Czech Republic.
Tong said that the Czech edition of his novel “Northwest Rain (西北雨)” was a pleasant surprise and a significant source of encouragement for him. This award-winning novel utilizes innovative narrative techniques such as rewinding, repeating, skipping, and delaying to reconstruct fragments of family history. According to Tong, since Czech readers might find the original title “Northwest Rain” difficult to interpret, he explained to his translator Pavlína Krámská that it refers to the afternoon thunderstorms that typically occur in Taiwan during summer. As a result, the title of the Czech edition was aptly chosen as “Letní deště,” which translates to “Summer Rain.”
Meanwhile, Chi Ta-wei, a novelist and literary critic best known for queer literature, presented his work “The Membranes (膜),” first published in 1995. The novel is considered a classic of Taiwanese queer science fiction and has been translated into multiple languages, including Japanese, English, French, Italian, Danish, and Finnish. The Czech version, titled “Membrány,” was released last year.