Burma Sahib

《暗星薩伐旅》作者保羅•索魯新書

這本書被《紐約時報》選為「21 世紀最佳書籍之一」，由作家 John Irving 親自推薦。

《蚊子海岸》、《壞天使兄弟》的作者保羅・索魯，再次帶來一部扣人心弦的新作——他深入描寫英國文學史上最受喜愛、也最具爭議的人物之一：喬治・歐威爾。故事聚焦在歐威爾早年在殖民緬甸擔任警官的那段歲月，這段經歷讓他從「帝國官員艾瑞克・布萊爾」轉變成反殖民作家「喬治・歐威爾」。

十九歲那年，剛從伊頓公學畢業的艾瑞克・布萊爾登上開往印度的船，心中滿是不安。和其他年輕同儕一樣，他將接受三年訓練，成為大英帝國的公務員，負責管理緬甸的地方警察。他必須同時面對英國社交階層的種種人際政治，學習當地語言、建立威信、又要壓抑內心的自我懷疑——對這位年輕人來說，這是一段艱難的試煉。最終，他與上級的衝突，以及這片炎熱又迷人的土地上發生的一切，徹底改變了他的人生。

Chosen by John Irving in the New York Times as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century

“Paul Theroux has exploited this biographical lacuna with great shrewdness and gusto… his fictional account of Blair’s life there [Burma] is a valid and entirely credible attempt to add flesh to the skeletal facts we have of this time. […]this novel is one of his finest, in a long and redoubtable oeuvre.” —New York Times Book Review

From the acclaimed author of The Mosquito Coast and The Bad Angel Brothers comes a riveting new novel exploring one of English literature’s most beloved and controversial figures—George Orwell—and the early years as an officer in colonial Burma that transformed him from Eric Blair, the British Raj policeman, into Orwell the anticolonial writer.

At age nineteen, young Eton graduate Eric Blair set sail for India, dreading the assignment ahead. Along with several other young conscripts, he would be trained for three years as a servant of the British Empire, overseeing the local policemen in Burma. Navigating the social, racial, and class politics of his fellow British at the same time as he learned the local languages and struggled to control his men would prove difficult enough. But doing all of this while grappling with his own self-worth, his sense that he was not cut out for this, is soon overwhelming for the young Blair. Eventually, his clashes with his superiors, and the drama that unfolds in this hot, beautiful land, will change him forever.