In One Brief Moment All Eternity

來自《天中有河》與《失物之島》入圍布克獎及女性文學獎決選名單作者。

在一個動盪不安的時代，居斯塔夫·福樓拜創作了文學史上最惡名昭彰的女主角：《包法利夫人》。隨後，他用砒霜毒殺了她。但如果，175 年後，愛瑪——以及那些被歷史忽視的女性——能夠從他手中奪過羽毛筆，講述一個不同的故事呢？

《In One Brief Moment All Eternity》是對一位標誌性男性作家的耀眼重塑，透過塑造他的女性們（不論真實或虛構）的眼睛講述：一位忠誠的保姆、一位埃及舞者，以及一位拒絕被遺忘的熱情而嫉妒的情人。透過她們的聲音，遠見卓識的作者艾莉芙·夏法克既勾勒出一位偉大藝術家的親密肖像，也對「講述故事」本身進行了史詩般的冥想：誰被銘記？誰被抹去？文學又如何在政治動盪、戰爭與不公中延續？當世界感覺破碎時，我們如何找到繼續前行的希望？

夏法克帶領讀者展開一趟穿越時空的非凡旅程，從福樓拜非同尋常的童年（居住在一棟兼具住宅、醫院與停屍間功能的房子裡），到十九世紀革命期間的巴黎，再前行至伊斯坦堡、開羅、巴勒斯坦和貝魯特。在這部令人振奮的故事中，她作品核心的問題展現出驚人且迫切的新意：誰得以發聲？而那些被噤聲的人又會說些什麼？

大膽創新、引人入勝且具啟發性，跨越數十年與數個大陸，《In One Brief Moment All Eternity》是一封獻給文學、未被述說的故事、被忽視的群體以及人類不屈不撓精神的璀璨情書。

「在你的書架上為艾莉芙·夏法克留個位置吧。也在你的心裡為她留個位置。你絕不會後悔的。」——阿蘭達蒂·洛伊（Arundhati Roy） 「世界文學中獨特而強大的聲音。」——伊恩·麥克尤恩（Ian McEwan） 「當今世界最優秀的作家之一。」——哈尼夫·庫雷什（Hanif Kureishi） 「我以一種恍惚的愉悅感讀完了這本美麗、多聲部、博學且令人深陷其中的書。儘管形塑這個關於文學英雄及其偉大（縱然眼光狹隘）女主角故事的是苦難、政治暴力、疾病、死亡與文化愚昧，我閉上這本書時，心中仍對文學持久的力量及其變革的魔力充滿感激。」——西莉·哈斯特韋特（Siri Hustvedt）

FROM THE BOOKER AND WOMEN'S-PRIZE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY AND THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES - AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

During a time of great turmoil, Gustave Flaubert created literature's most scandalous heroine: Madame Bovary. He then poisoned her with arsenic. But what if, 175 years later, Emma – and the women history overlooked – could seize the quill from his hands and tell a different story?

In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a luminous reinvention of an iconic male writer, told through the eyes of the women – real and fictional – who shaped him: a devoted nursemaid, an Egyptian dancer and a passionate, jealous lover who refuses to be forgotten. Through their voices, visionary author Elif Shafak creates both an intimate portrait of a great artist and an epic meditation on storytelling itself: who gets remembered, who gets erased, and how can literature endure through political upheaval, war and injustice? When the world feels broken, how do we find the hope to carry on?

Shafak takes readers on an extraordinary journey through time and space, from Flaubert's unusual childhood in a house that was part home, part hospital, part morgue, to nineteenth-century Paris during the Revolution, and onwards to Istanbul, Cairo, Palestine and Beirut. In this exhilarating tale, the questions at the heart of her work take on a thrilling new urgency: who gets to speak, and what would the silenced have said?

Boldly inventive, transporting and illuminating, spanning decades and continents, In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a dazzling love letter to literature, untold stories, neglected communities and the enduring spirit of humanity.

'Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it' ARUNDHATI ROY

'A unique and powerful voice in world literature' IAN MCEWAN

'One of the best writers in the world today' HANIF KUREISHI

'I read this beautiful, polyphonic, learned, deeply absorbing book in a trance of pleasure. Despite the suffering, political violence, illness, death, and cultural stupidities that shape this story of a literary hero and his tremendous, if blinkered, heroine, I closed the novel with a feeling of gratitude for the abiding power of literature and its transformative magic.' SIRI HUSTVEDT