It is a pleasure to know my novel  The Grand Candidius Hotel (歡迎光臨康堤紐斯大飯店)* is selected as one of the Books From Taiwan. As to my understanding, Book From Taiwan is a government-sponsored program aiming at promoting Taiwanese books to the international market. Therefore I have my photo, a well refined one, published here, together with some personal introduction in English and some parts of the novel being translated in English.

    Interesting is that the English translation of The Grand Candidius Hotel here reads catchier and smarter than the Chinese original, like somewhat a NY Bestseller. An illusion is that if this English novel being translated into Chinese, it will be a big hit. Allow me to cite a few paragraphs:

    In 2015, the travel magazine Crowded Sun had this to say about the Grand Candidius Hotel:

    The Candidius has everything a five-star hotel ought to have: comfortable rooms, good service, in-house spa, excellent cuisine and a quality wine list.…Yet beyond that, the hotel is a dreamlike creation tucked away in the last patch of untouched scenery in Taiwan’s central mountains. It perches on a two hundred-foot cliff above the blue waters of a perfect alpine lake, its two pure white wings outstretched like an angel’s, embracing every shade of blue and green. You will scarcely mind the hundreds of stone steps you have to descend, when you find yourself immersed in nature on the narrow pathway between the cliff and the edge of the lake. What is that lapping, rustling, blowing sound? It is the ancient hymn of the forest. It is the drumming of this island’s heartbeat.

    But Prosecutor Wang Chun-Ying was in no mood to listen to hymns or heartbeats. As his department-issue car sped along the highway around the lake, Wang cursed himself for the bad decisions he’d made since last night.

    “Shooting death of the Chairman of the Board of the Grand Candidius Hotel.”

    The name of the case alone indicated that it would be dangerously complicated. There would be political factors and big money, the public and the press. It might cause ripples beyond the local, up to the seats of national power. And it just had to happen on the first of January, 2016, when his wife and son were away in Japan, and Wang had arranged four days of uninterrupted leave for himself. It should have had nothing to do with him, if only that silly bitch from Fung Section hadn’t broken her leg at a New Year’s Eve party. What was she doing going to New Year parties at her age? Better if she’d broken her damn neck. And how did she know about Wang and Chia-Fen? Had she seen them at a motel? Had Chia-Fen told her?

    Not bad, right?

    Perhaps I should try to circulate this document in the next WTO meeting as a room document, so I can immediately reach 169 markets once.

    If you happen to be, or to know, a non-Taiwan publisher looking for a mystery story in a quick tempo and full of crazy intrigues, The Grand Candidius Hotel will be the one you should take a look.

    You may download the latest version of Books From Taiwan here. There are some quite interesting books. 
http://booksfromtaiwan.tw/…/Books%20from%20Taiwan%20Issue%2…

    很高興看見拙著《歡迎光臨康堤紐斯大飯店》入選文化部Books From Taiwan計畫，據我所知，該計畫目在於推廣台灣創作。因此在本期的Books From Taiwan中，除了小弟個人簡介外，還有一小段《歡迎光臨康堤紐斯大飯店》的節譯。

    不知是否是我崇洋的關係，我覺得這裡的英文節譯讀起來比《歡迎光臨康堤紐斯大飯店》的中文原本還有趣，好像真是什麼很厲害的美國暢銷作品，感覺如果這本英文小說翻成中文就會很暢銷(中文不就你自己寫的嗎？)

    無論如何，看到自己作品的英文譯本很新鮮。如果您剛好是個非台灣的出版業者，正在找快節奏、充斥著瘋狂情節與詭計的推理小說的話，《歡迎光臨康堤紐斯大飯店》會是個好選擇。

    最近一期的Books From Taiwan可以下載，裡面有很多有趣的台灣作品。或許我應該要在WTO會議發一下，一下就可以觸及169國的市場。
http://booksfromtaiwan.tw/…/Books%20from%20Taiwan%20Issue%2…