Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
蒂姆·溫頓《云街》
An epic novel that regularly tops the list of best-loved novels in Australia. After two separate catastrophes, two very different families leave the country for the bright lights of Perth. The Lambs are industrious, united, and―until God seems to turn His back on their boy Fish―religious. The Pickleses are gamblers, boozers, fractious, and unlikely landlords. Change, hardship, and the war force them to swallow their dignity and share a great, breathing, shuddering house called Cloudstreet.
《云街》是一部史詩(shī)小說(shuō),常常位列澳大利亞最受歡迎的小說(shuō)排行榜榜首。在經(jīng)歷了兩次災(zāi)難后,兩個(gè)截然不同的家庭搬到了陽(yáng)光明媚的珀斯(澳大利亞第四城市)。蘭姆一家積極工作、團(tuán)結(jié)一致,而在神明帶走他們的孩子菲什之前,這一家人是虔誠(chéng)的宗教徒。皮寇勒賽斯一家則賭徒酒鬼混雜,他們極易發(fā)怒,不像地主。變化、困難與戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)致使這兩家人無(wú)奈拋下尊嚴(yán),共享一棟顫顫巍巍而有生機(jī)的大房子——云街。
2. 日本
Manazuru by Hiromi Kawakami
川上弘美《真鶴》
Twelve years have passed since Kei’s husband, Rei, disappeared and she was left alone with her three-year-old daughter. Her new relationship with a married man—the antithesis of Rei—has brought her life to a numbing stasis, and her relationships with her mother and daughter have spilled into routine, day after day.
慧的丈夫黎消失了整整十二年,留下慧一人撫養(yǎng)三歲的小女兒。她與一位有婦之夫(與丈夫黎的性格相反)發(fā)展出新關(guān)系,這讓慧的生活陷入凝滯狀態(tài)。而慧同母親、女兒的關(guān)系也日復(fù)一日、一成不變。
Through a poetic style embracing the surreal and grotesque, a quiet tenderness emerges from these dark moments. Manazuru is a meditation on memory—a profound, precisely delineated exploration of the relationships between lovers and family members.
《真鶴》以詩(shī)意的文字描繪了一個(gè)超現(xiàn)實(shí)的奇異世界。靜謐的溫柔從那些黑暗的時(shí)光中孕育而出?!墩纡Q》是對(duì)記憶的沉思,字里行間準(zhǔn)確而深刻地?cái)⑹隽藧?ài)人與家庭成員間的關(guān)系。
3. 俄羅斯
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
亞歷山大·索爾仁尼琴的《伊凡·杰尼索維奇的一天》
The simply told story of a typical, grueling day of the titular character's life in a labor camp in Siberia, is a modern classic of Russian literature and quickly cemented Solzhenitsyn's international reputation.
這本小說(shuō)簡(jiǎn)要地講述了主人公伊凡·杰尼索維奇在西伯利亞勞動(dòng)營(yíng)中一貫艱難的日子。它是俄羅斯文學(xué)中的現(xiàn)代經(jīng)典著作,并很快地確立了索爾仁尼琴在國(guó)際文壇上的聲譽(yù)。
4. 土耳其
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
艾麗芙·沙法克的《愛(ài)的四十條規(guī)則》
The most widely read female writer in Turkey... Shafak effortlessly blends East and West, past and present, to create a dramatic, compelling, and exuberant tale about how love works in the world.
沙法克是土耳其最負(fù)盛名的女作家,她的作品廣為人知。在她的筆下,東西方文化、過(guò)去與現(xiàn)在,輕松融合,一段引人入勝而又妙趣橫生的故事就此誕生,向讀者講述了愛(ài)如何在這個(gè)世界發(fā)揮作用。
Shafak unfolds two parallel narratives-one set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the wandering dervish known as Shams of Tabriz, and one contemporary, as an unhappy American housewife, inspired by Rumi's message of love, finds the courage to transform her life.
沙法克在這本小說(shuō)里展開(kāi)了兩條平行的敘述線(xiàn),一位是13世紀(jì)時(shí),魯米遇見(jiàn)的精神導(dǎo)師——大不里士的流浪托缽僧沙姆斯;另一位則是現(xiàn)代一個(gè)郁郁寡歡的美國(guó)家庭主婦。她受到魯米愛(ài)的信息的啟發(fā),鼓起勇氣改變自己的生活。
5. 墨西哥
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
勞拉·埃斯基維爾《恰似水之于干巧克力》
Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.
這本小說(shuō)敘述坦率、有魔力,格外引人入勝。它敘述了墨西哥的一個(gè)家庭在世紀(jì)之交發(fā)生的故事,以辛酸的愛(ài)情故事與苦中帶甜的睿智文字結(jié)合,贏(yíng)得了暢銷(xiāo)小說(shuō)的地位。
6. 冰島
Stone Tree by Gyrõir Elíasson
Gyrõir Elíasson的《石樹(shù)》
Along the lonely western shores of Iceland, among its vast mountain ranges and its barren lava fields, this sublime collection of short stories blends the desires and efforts of its numerous protagonists, nearly all intent on taking leave of their normal lives in order to pursue their dreams more seriously.
《石樹(shù)》是一本精彩的短篇故事集,以冰島那些孤零零的西部海岸、廣袤無(wú)垠的山脊和寸草不生的熔巖地為背景,它敘述了諸多主人公的欲望與努力。主人公們?yōu)榱烁J(rèn)真地對(duì)待追夢(mèng),便要拋卻常規(guī)生活。這篇故事集幾乎將他們的種種意圖毫無(wú)保留地呈現(xiàn)給讀者。
7. 芬蘭
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
亞托·帕西里納的《遇見(jiàn)野兔的那一年》
Which of us has not had that wonderfully seditious idea: to play hooky for a while from life as we know it?' With these words from his foreword, Pico Iyer puts his finger on the exhilaratingly anarchic appeal of The Year of the Hare. Suddenly realizing what's important in life (with the help of a bunny), a man quits his job and heads to the countryside in this internationally bestselling comic novel.
皮柯·耶爾在給《遇見(jiàn)野兔的那一年》作序時(shí)提到了這本書(shū)以其令人興奮的無(wú)政府思想吸引人,他寫(xiě)道:“正如我們所知的那樣,在人生中脫些軌——我們有誰(shuí)不曾有過(guò)如此的反動(dòng)思想呢?”這本暢銷(xiāo)國(guó)際的喜劇小說(shuō)講述了男主人公經(jīng)一只小兔子提點(diǎn),突然意識(shí)到什么對(duì)他的生命很重要,于是便辭職前往郊區(qū)。
8. 瑞典
Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta by Aglaja Veteranyi
Aglaja Veteranyi所著的《為什么孩子在玉米糊里烹煮》
Aglaja Veteranyi was born in Bucharest to a family of circus artists who toured Europe relentlessly until they finally settled in Switzerland. An actress, performer, and artist as well as a writer, she only published one novel during her lifetime. She committed suicide in 2002.
Aglaja Veteranyi出生在布加勒斯特的一個(gè)雜耍演員家庭,他們?cè)跉W洲馬不停蹄地巡演后,最終定居瑞士。Veteranyi是演員、表演家、藝術(shù)家,同時(shí)還是位作家。但她終身只發(fā)表過(guò)一本小說(shuō),她在2002年自殺了。
In the novel, a nomadic family of circus performers, refugees from Romania, travels through Europe and Africa by caravan. The mother's death-defying act causes constant anxiety for her two daughters, who voice their fears through a grisly communal fairy tale about a child being cooked alive in polenta--but their real life is no less of a dark fable, and one that seems just as unlikely to have a happy ending.
在這本小說(shuō)中,一個(gè)由雜耍演員組成的游牧家庭從羅馬尼亞逃難出來(lái),開(kāi)著大篷車(chē)在歐洲和非洲巡演。母親與死亡抗?fàn)幍男袨闀r(shí)常讓她的兩個(gè)女兒憂(yōu)慮。她們靠講一個(gè)駭人聽(tīng)聞、社區(qū)居民廣為相傳的神話(huà)故事來(lái)排解恐懼——一個(gè)小孩在玉米糊中被生生煮了。不過(guò)這兩個(gè)孩子的現(xiàn)實(shí)生活也無(wú)異于一個(gè)黑暗的寓言故事,她們似乎不可能擁有一個(gè)美滿(mǎn)結(jié)局……