2021 TLA Golden Book Award

About the Book
Making literature of illness and reaching another peak in her writing career. Facing the gaps between an aggressive disease and her own mortality, Ping Lu dramatically dissects her body and soul, the most important relationships in her life, and modern medicine. She embarks on a new adventure through language and reaches new heights in her writing career through The Gaps.

Judge Commentary (By Chen Rong-Bin)
Novelist Ping Lu wrote this book as a dramatic departure from her usual style after two bouts of cancer within a short period of time. Among the titles shortlisted for this year’s Golden Awards, several take up the topic of life after disease, but this one in particular has made waves as a work of “disease writing” from Taiwan. The most unique aspect of The Gaps is not Ping Lu’s courage in sharing how she faced life after recovering from a serious illness, but her focus on the many new perspectives that she discovered through serious reflection. One could say this is a special ability that the patient gains, something that sets their perspective apart from those of the healthy. More specifically, this is an ability that opens up the possibility of a brand new outlook on life.