Taiwanese-American writer wins Guardian book award for account of rape

書寫性侵過往台裔美籍作家李懷瑜獲非布克獎

Taiwanese-American female writer wins Not the Booker prize for 'Dark Chapter' based on account of rape

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A Taiwanese-American woman?living in the UK was awarded the Guardian Not the Booker Prize 2017 on Monday (Oct. 16) for her novel "Dark Chapter," in which she details?her experience being raped in Belfast, Northern Ireland nine years ago.

Winnie M. Li (李懷瑜), 36, who is an American citizen of Taiwanese heritage, but has been living in the UK since her 20s, won the award out of five finalists for her intense account of her experience being sexually assaulted. Her novel won both the public vote and approval of the Guardian judges.?

Though she had won the public vote with a clear majority, two out of three judges favored?Harriet Paige’s "Man With a Seagull on His Head," but the third judge,?Hannah Bruce Macdonald, made the case for Li's book. "She argued that it wasn’t just an important and brave novel, it was also a story well told," reported the Guardian.?

In 2008, when Li was in Belfast to attend the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, she decided to hike in Colin Glen Forest Park in the west part of the city, solo. While hiking in the park, a 15-year-old boy happened upon her and proceeded to viciously?rape?her.?

"I started writing Dark Chapter in the autumn of 2013 but pretty much shortly after the assault I had the idea to write about it, so, in some ways, it’s been a long journey as it’s been nine years since the assault," Winnie said in an interview with the The Irish News.

The assailant, Edward Connors, a Traveller?(traditionally itinerant person), was eventually sentenced to eight years in prison in 2011. However, he was released in 2012 after serving four years, but subsequently broke the conditions of his probation and fled to?Dublin, Ireland.

The book is broken into thee parts, leading up to the event, during the assault, and the aftermath, told from both the point of view of the victim and the attacker, who were given the fictional names of Vivian Tan and Johnny Sweeney, respectively.?

Li told The Irish News that writing from the point of view of the attacker helped her come to terms with what he had done and helped her make sense of the assault, but also was a creative challenge.?"That was more difficult on a creative level, but also more interesting, as it challenged me as a writer and a human to find some element of humanity in the character who, I think, the majority of the public would not want to have much sympathy for," said Li.?