內容簡介
內容簡介 【比爾蓋茲推薦書單：歷年推薦】「關於失落者、不幸者與被剝奪權利者，沒人能寫得比喬治‧桑德斯更擲地有聲。」－－Michiko Kakutani, 紐約時報「桑德斯讓你感覺彷彿自己是第一次讀小說。」－－Khaled Hosseini「幾乎沒有人像桑德斯般刻劃得如此深刻。」－－Junot Díaz「繼馬克吐溫之後，美國最滑稽好笑的諷刺作家。」－－Zadie Smith「喬治‧桑德斯輕而易舉地化不可能為可能。我們有他真幸運。」－－Jonathan Franzen小說書迷引頸期盼，《十二月十日》(Tenth of December)作者、美國短篇小說大師喬治‧桑德斯推出首部長篇小說！本書主題是一個動人的原創父子故事，主角正是美國前總統亞伯拉罕‧林肯，而令人難忘的眾多配角們，有死有生、有假有真…1862年二月，美國內戰爆發未滿一年；隨著戰事越演越烈，聯邦政府已經開始逐漸意識到，這是一場漫長而血腥的苦戰。同時，林肯總統的心愛的11歲兒子威利躺在白宮裡，病重命危。儘管預言說，他會好起來，威利還是在幾天後不幸病逝，遺體並被安放在喬治城墓園。「我可憐的兒子啊，對這個地球而言，他太好了…」總統當時說，「上帝召他回家了。」報紙報導，深受哀慟打擊的林肯，數度單獨返回地窖，擁抱愛兒的遺體。從這個歷史事實的種子開始萌芽，喬治‧桑德斯打造出另一個令人難忘、關於家庭之愛與失去的故事，打破了它原本現實與歷史的框架，讓這個故事跨進超自然領域，熱鬧滑稽卻又同時可怕恐怖。威利‧林肯發現自己身處於一個奇怪的煉獄中，鬼魂們會彼此打交道、抱怨發牢騷，也會憐憫、爭吵，而且還制訂頒佈了一堆稀奇古怪的苦行來贖罪。在這個過渡的狀態裡─西藏傳統稱之為「bardo」─年輕威利的靈魂爆發了極大的掙扎。喬治‧桑德斯以本書開創了驚悚的新格局與新型態，同時展現了驚人的想像力及卓越的文筆。他也提出了一個深刻且永恆的問題：當我們知道我們所愛的一切必須結束時，我們如何生活與愛？The long-awaited first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and inventedFebruary 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body.From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?"
