★授權南非、北美、荷、義、韓、挪、塞、西、土
★1997年M-Net最佳小說獎（M-Net Literary Award, Best Novel）
★1997年施雷納文學新銳獎（Olive Schreiner Prize）
★1996年中央新聞社文學獎決選作（Special mention, The CNA Literary Award）
★1996年野間非洲最佳圖書獎決選作（Honourable Mention, The Noma Award, Best Book in Africa）

南非作家、詩人、劇作家札克．恩達（Zakes Mda）是南非民主年代最重要作家之一，擅長以銳利的諷喻筆鋒檢視種族隔離政策結束後的新南非，政治上團結一致的宣稱、黑人中產階級的興起，以及這個多元種族構成的複雜社會的其他面向，超越傳統南非文學描繪種族隔離下與壓迫抗爭的範疇。

《死亡的方式》（Ways of Dying）是恩達廣受讚譽的第一部小說，篇幅雖精簡但奠定了鮮明的寫作風格，在出版二十年後的今天仍令知名美國作家芭芭拉．金索夫（Barbara Kingsolver）為之驚豔，稱道本書讓她讀到不同的南非文學面貌，是南非的魔幻寫實！

小說主角托洛基生活在一個暴力頻仍的南非大城，他相貌醜陋如罪惡，內心卻有無比的純真。他是一名見證各種死亡的「職業悼亡者」，日復一日，他慎重穿戴上破舊的西裝與紳士帽出席城內大小喪禮，安慰那些哀痛逾恆的遺屬，他們的親人或死於城市犯罪、種族仇恨，或在極度貧窮、悲傷中消隕。托洛基還能因應不同喪禮性質，靈活變化哀悼的風格。

在一場罕見於聖誕節舉行的喪禮上，托洛基與鄉下老家的童年舊友諾瑞雅重逢，死者正是她早夭的兒子。短短幾日，托洛基決定搬去與諾瑞雅同居，他們互相訴說故事，療瘉過去的傷口，希望能在對方身上，在故事中找到補足殘敗人生的慰藉。

我們得知，諾瑞雅還是小女孩時便展現奇異的蠱惑能力。在她的歌聲中，托洛基的父親雕塑出無數精巧的人偶，創作力源源不絕，但諾瑞雅很快意識到，她對男人的影響力能為她獲取更大的利益。托洛基的父親失去諾瑞雅後，將沮喪全發洩在醜陋的兒子身上……

托洛基與諾瑞雅各自逃離了村莊，歷史卻陰魂不散。小說實際的時間僅從聖誕節到新年前夕短短數日，但透過記憶與口述敘事的形式跨越了多重時空向度，讓更多人物的遭遇與歷史交織交疊，譜出一幅如夢似幻、苦痛的當代南非社會圖像，在新舊制度之間、在勃發的生命力與驟然的死亡間拉扯，黑暗暴烈與荒謬詼諧的筆調互相映照。小說最終似乎暗示，倘若暴力在這個民族已是根深柢固，那麼回應暴力的解決之道亦然，以神祇與祖先的精神形式存在於人民之中。

 

札克．恩達（Zakes Mda），writer, painter, composer and film maker. He commutes between South Africa and the U.S., as professor of creative writing at Ohio University, beekeeper in the Eastern Cape, patron of the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, and a director of the Southern African Multimedia AIDS Trust. 其他作品：《The Heart of Redness》、《The Madonna of Excelsior》、《The Whale Caller》、《Cion》，即將出版最新小說《Little Suns》。

 

‘WAYS OF DYING is written in the casual style of collective oral story-telling, filled with homespun wisdom and memories of old quarrels…Reflecting the startling contrasts in such a world, tender humour and brutal violence vie with each other in Mda’s pages, as do vibrant life and sudden death. The struggle between them creates an energetic and refreshing literature for a country still coming to terms with both the new and the old.’ -- The New York Times Book Review

‘Mda has brought an outsider’s fresh and edgy perspective to bear on his material, swinging loosely from grim social realism to moments of fantastical magic…WAYS OF DYING is a rollicking, at times whimsical tour through the dying days of apartheid as witnessed by the Professional Mourner, Toloki, who wanders from township funeral to township funeral with the hapless wonder of a Chaplinesque loner…THE HEART OF REDNESS offers a view of the unwinding road ahead, already several paces beyond the more simplistic, freewheeling WAYS OF DYING. Here, to use Coetzee’s words again, is another major step in the new South African novel – now a polyphony of voices, suddenly freed yet still shadowed by deep and immense riddles.’ -- Village Voice

‘Writing from the heart of the new South Africa, Mda tells his country’s stories through beautifully realized characters whose search for love and connection takes you up close to the black experience, past and present…Mda does a great job of subverting the heart-of-darkness stereotypes, and he does it without romanticizing the “primitive”…In both books, it’s the strong women characters – bereft, wild, funny, nurturing – who make the stories ring with excitement and hope.’ -- Booklist

‘A powerful lyrical book about a man who obsessively attends funerals in the townships, dressed with dignity in a threadbare suit, cape and bettered top hat…One reviewer said you soon forget whether you read it or dreamt it. In a country where we bury so many because of Aids, it is a book, or a dream, that stays with you for months.’ -- Justice Malala, Financial Times Magazine

‘Once you have finished WAYS OF DYING, you won’t know whether you read the novel or dreamt it. Zakes Mda has gathered up all the human waste and political detritus of South African life and distilled it into a magic realist text of great beauty, humour and pathos...Many splendid characters inhabit WAYS OF DYING…Mda’s novel, with its jewel-like moments of pure imagination, its gentle upward narrative structure and its repertoire of distinct, intricately carved characters whose lives mean much more than their deaths, bears out this paradox.’ -- Sunday Independent