Let Us Descend | 誠品線上

Let Us Descend

內容簡介

內容簡介 媽媽說我就是自己的武器，我會走過地獄行向自由兩屆美國國家圖書獎得主沃德作品量少質精，第四本小說賦與美國奴隸制度新想像，訴說重生與改造。小說書名出自但丁《神曲》，年輕女奴安妮斯是讀者穿越地獄的嚮導。黑人母親教她採藥、戰鬥、召喚自然之靈，白人奴隸主父親將她賣到南方。從卡羅萊納州稻田、新紐爾良奴隸市場，到路易斯安那州蔗園，安妮斯從母親記憶和非洲戰士祖母的故事尋求力量。南北戰爭前，在北卡羅萊納的一座莊園裡，女奴阿妮絲和母親莎夏相依為命。莎夏從小就告誡阿妮絲：「妳就是妳自己的武器」。每個月的一天，莎夏會帶阿妮絲在夜裡溜出來，在樹林中用木棍教阿妮絲如何防身和攻擊，並訴說關於阿妮絲的祖母雅札─過去在非洲是名女戰士─的故事，告訴阿妮絲，戰士的血液存在在體內。莎夏和阿妮絲在屋內幫傭，負責煮飯和整理房間，阿妮絲每次都會偷聽莊園主人的兩個女兒和家教上課的內容，關於亞里斯多德，關於一個遠在義大利的詩人，曾經寫下走進地獄的詩...但阿妮絲沒有學習的權利，儘管─她知道這兩個金髮白皮膚的少女是她的親姐妹，命運卻有如此巨大的不同。阿妮絲曾聽莎夏告訴她，主人是如何將她推進一間沒有人的房間、將她壓在地板上、將她撕裂，第二次是在河邊，第三次...直到莎夏已經放棄去算，然後便發現自己懷孕了，並生下阿妮絲。而阿妮絲也慢慢查覺到，主人看她的眼神有些異樣，總是令她毛骨悚然。一次，主人想強暴阿妮絲，被莎夏發現並阻止後，莎夏便被抓走，自此消失在阿妮絲的生命。阿妮絲唯一的慰藉是另一個負責照料蜜蜂、個性奔放的女奴莎菲，但莎菲不久後便逃離莊園，而阿妮絲也獲知自己將被賣到更南方的路易斯安那。在前往紐奧良奴隸市場的路上，她和其他奴隸被手銬銬住，徒步前行，她每天走到雙腳流血，每走一步宛如刀割，甚至必須踩著傷口過河，阿妮絲看見身旁一個個奴隸死亡後被丟棄，承受外在極大的痛苦之下，她轉向內心的世界尋求力量，她回想起她的母親、她的祖母，這些回憶讓她支撐下去。突然她發現自己聽到一個聲音─一個名叫雅札的精靈對她說話，帶她避開路途上的危險與暴力，阿妮絲發現自己慢慢能夠去聆聽大自然中許多精靈的聲音，而這或許是唯一能帶她結束苦難的出路...Let Us Descend 原出自但丁《神曲》的地獄篇，兩次美國國家圖書獎得主Jesmyn Ward以優美、寫實、殘酷又真摯的文字，深刻地刻劃黑奴曾遭受到的暴力與磨難，她們宛如在地獄行走，內心仍然嚮往天堂。“‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” —Inferno, Dante Alighieri Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation. Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.

作者介紹

作者介紹 Jesmyn WardJesmyn Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has received the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers Residency, the Strauss Living Prize, and the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. She is the historic winner—first woman and first Black American—of two National Book Awards for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) and Salvage the Bones (2011). She is also the author of the novel Where the Line Bleeds and the memoir Men We Reaped, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and the Media for a Just Society Award. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Tulane University and lives in Mississippi.

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最佳賣點 : 她們宛如步行於但丁的《地獄》：兩次美國國家圖書獎得主潔思敏‧沃德，重新詮釋黑奴追尋自由的哀歌

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