A German translation of the classic Chinese novel The Journey to the West won the Best Translation category at the 2017 Leipzig Book Fair Prize on Thursday. 

Swiss translator Eva Lüdi Kong spent over 17 years working on "Die Reise in den Westen", which was the first time that the Chinese novel has been translated into the German language. Having received her masters degree in classic literature from Zhejiang University in China, Eva stayed in the country for another 25 years.

In her acceptance speech and a following interview, Eva could barely contain her excitement at her published translation, as she spent over a decade searching for a publisher. During all her translation and research, she was unsure whether her scripts would be published or not. 

In 2009, she came across Dieter Meier, editor of Reclam, a German publishing press, who agreed to publish her work. Die Reise in den Westen finally went to press last year. 

Journey to the West, written by the Ming Dynasty novelist Wu Cheng’en during the 16th century, is a combination of picaresque novel and folk epic that mixes satire, allegory, and history into a grand adventure. It is the story of the roguish Monkey and his encounters with major and minor spirits, gods, demigods, demons, ogres, monsters, and fairies. 

The Leipzig Book Fair is Germany's second largest book fair and takes place annually over four days in the north of Leipzig, Saxony. It is the first large trade meeting of the year and as such it plays an important role in the market and is often where new publications are first presented.