坎城影展片的原著小說
文學小說
更新日期:
2020-09-07
Mothering Sunday
Graham Swift
Simon & Schuster (UK)/ Knopf (US)
Feb. 2016
192pp
書籍編號:
01-1950
已有電子文稿,歡迎索稿審
● 內文簡介

★已授權英、美、加、阿、丹、荷、法、德、義、希、日、匈、韓、立、挪、葡、羅、俄、西、瑞典、土、斯洛維尼亞,22國語文!
★英國亞馬遜、全英暢銷小說
★華特·司各特小說獎(Walter Scott Prize)初選作
★本小說改編成電影,於2021年坎城影展中大獲好評。由英國知名男星柯林弗斯、奧莉薇雅柯爾曼領銜主演!

一段跨越階級的秘密幽會,一個異常熾熱的春季星期天。她睥睨塵世規則,從女僕踏上作家之路,不凡的一生中卻終將不斷重回永遠無法寫出的那一天…

二十二歲的珍妮天性聰慧但自幼失怙,年紀輕輕就到英國鄉間富有人家幫傭,七、八年來,她一直是隔壁家年輕繼承人保羅的秘密情人。小說從1924年一個異常溫暖的三月星期日(這一天被定為「周日母親節」)揭開序幕。珍妮是個孤兒,從來不知道自己的母親是誰,就算沒有母親可以拜訪,她仍享有一天的外出假期。這一天,保羅的家人都外出了,只剩下他。就算即將與門當戶對的未婚妻結婚,他仍然把珍妮邀請到家裡,決定來場最後一次偷情,這也是珍妮第一次踏進保羅的臥室。

激情過後,明亮的陽光灑在珍妮自在舒展的裸體上,她沒想到,這一天將改變她的一生。

《Mothering Sunday》的敘事來回於1924年與世紀末,彼時珍妮已是知名作家。我們對珍妮的了解,隨著小說每一段優美飽滿的描寫不斷擴展,看見她如何愛、思考、觀察、感受與記憶一切,逐漸揭露一段不凡的人生。

這個關於珍妮自我發現之路的故事,有如背景發生在《唐頓莊園》時代的女性主義版《灰姑娘》,《衛報》書評家也將其與麥克尤恩(Ian McEwan)的布克獎決選作《卻希爾海灘》(On Chesil Beach)相提並論。二者同樣是少見的中篇,同樣著墨某個意想不到的人生轉捩點時刻、親密關係的危險,與關於他人永遠無法探知的無奈荒謬,然而《卻希爾海灘》通篇在陰鬱的天空下開展,本書則始終熾烈明亮,即使悲劇發生時依然燃燒。這是一部感情與感官濃烈,深刻撼動人心的小說,也是大師展現故事如何在精練篇幅中涵蓋人的一生的巔峰之作。

 

● 作者簡介

格雷厄姆.斯威夫(Graham Swift),出生於1949年,著有九本小說、兩本短篇小說集,其中包括備受讚譽的《英格蘭和其他故事》(England and Other Stories),以及散文集《製作象》(Making an Elephant)。他獲得《衛報》小說獎,並以《最後命令》(Last Orders)榮獲布克獎。自那以後,這兩部小說都被拍成電影。他的小說《Mothering Sunday》也拍成電影。他的作品已被翻譯成三十多種語言。

 

● 媒體報導

“MOTHERING SUNDAY is, like everything Swift writes, quite unlike anything Swift has written before, and subtly teasing...[it] recommends itself as an antidote to the cloying sentimentalities of Downton. Downstairs was never happy.”——Times

“MOTHERING SUNDAY is a powerful, philosophical and exquisitely observed novel about the lives we lead, and the parallel lives – the parallel stories – we can never know…It may just be Swift’s best novel yet.”——Observer

“A vanished world is resurrected with superb immediacy…Characters are perfectly caught but never flatly pinned down. Fidelity to life, Swift has stressed before, includes recognising that people and events have depths that can remain unknown or only partly glimpsed. MOTHERING SUNDAY makes fine use of this awareness. Wonderfully accomplished, it is an achievement as brilliant as its weather.”——Sunday Times

“A perfect small tragedy with all the spring and tension of a short story…Swift’s small fiction feels like a masterpiece.”
Financial Times “Swift has written a book that is not just his most moving and intricate but his most engrossing too.” ——Guardian

“Swift is an undoubted master of detail and delay, working by a process of meditation and accumulation to create a narrative that carries far more heft than one might assume from its length.”——Independent