 榮獲大英國協作家獎 美國總統歐巴馬的渡假選書 2010《時代》雜誌年度十大小說 2010《紐約時報》年度百大好書 2010亞馬遜網路書店編輯與讀者票選年度好書 入圍曼布克獎、獨立書商最佳書獎、布萊克小說獎 十八世紀末，東方與西方的衝撞加速歷史運轉，震盪出險峻的人性裂口， 野心勃勃的冒險家各懷鬼胎，帶著千秋幻夢展開壯闊的冒險史詩…… 日本鎖國時期，唯有荷蘭人能到長崎出島進行貿易，並交換技術與新知。荷蘭東印度公司的成員各個勾心鬥角、巧取豪奪，希冀能在世界風雲變色之際大賺一票。 一七九九年，荷蘭東印度公司員工雅各來到出島，希望在服務期滿後衣錦還鄉，迎娶未婚妻。不料，東方的爭權奪利與人性私欲讓他面臨重大抉擇；更糟的是，他發現自己深深迷戀一名日本女人，但日本嚴禁與外國人通婚，他的愛慕無法被承認。更何況，他還有一名風度翩翩的情敵。 同時，英國東印度公司的船隻航行至出島外海，並與荷蘭東印度公司的叛逃者合作，綁架荷蘭東印度公司的商館館長。荷蘭與英國的衝突一觸即發，身為小職員的雅各要如何抵禦英國船艦、保護荷蘭的利益？ 大衛．米契爾在本書中描繪十八世紀末，西方人與日本人在長崎出島的眾生相。他靈活描寫各個人物的心理狀態，並揉合歷史、冒險、愛情、傳奇等元素，刻劃出栩栩如生的時代版畫。 In 2007, Time magazine named him one of the most influential novelists in the world. He has twice been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. The New York Times Book Review called him simply ”a genius.” Now David Mitchell lends fresh credence to The Guardian’s claim that ”each of his books seems entirely different from that which preceded it.” The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a stunning departure for this brilliant, restless, and wildly ambitious author, a giant leap forward by even his own high standards. A bold and epic novel of a rarely visited point in history, it is a work as exquisitely rendered as it is irresistibly readable. The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the “high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island” that is the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancee back in Holland. But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, ”Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?” A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author. 本書中譯版《雅各的千秋之年》由天下文化出版。 |
Thousand Autumns Of Jacob 雅各的千秋之年
