內容簡介
內容簡介 「這本書並不是敘述戰爭和其後果的傳統故事，這是一個女孩從導致家庭破碎的戰爭中，找尋自己的成長故事」─出版家週刊 瓦馬米雅出生於盧安達，畢業於耶魯大學，現在是知名的演講者和人權擁護者，曾經四次受邀參加美國知名電視節目「歐普拉秀」，二零一六年受時任美國總統歐巴馬的欽點，成為美國大屠殺紀念博物館管理委員會的一員。 看似一帆風順的人生，其實來自一個充滿恐懼的過去。 六歲那年，瓦馬米雅和當時十五歲的姊姊為了在盧安達的大屠殺中求生存，逃離了家鄉，接下來的六年兩人在非洲各個國家間往返尋求庇護，途中無止盡的飢餓、被禁閉、被虐待，讓兩姊妹體驗了世界的黑暗面。 終於在瓦馬米雅十二歲那年，兩人獲得了美國的難民身分，她被芝加哥的一戶人家收養，進入優秀的私立學校就讀，看起來已經擺脫過往悲慘的人生，但那六前間的經驗卻不時地出現在瓦馬米雅的腦中。 本書即為瓦馬米雅紀錄這六年間的回憶錄，經過那場戰爭，或許有些東西永久被摧毀了，但也有可以且值得被重整。瓦馬米雅希望透過這本書，串聯起戰時經驗中的美與缺失，也希望可以鼓勵讀者在逆境中也可以找到正面的力量。 Normal 0 0 2 false false false EN-US ZH-TW X-NONE * Style Definitions * table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:表格內文; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-font-kerning:1.0pt;}“The plot provided by the universe was filled with starvation, war and rape. I would not—could not—live in that tale.” Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive. When Clemantine was twelve, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States; there, in Chicago, their lives diverged. Though their bond remained unbreakable, Claire, who had for so long protected and provided for Clemantine, was a single mother struggling to make ends meet, while Clemantine was taken in by a family who raised her as their own. She seemed to live the American dream: attending private school, taking up cheerleading, and, ultimately, graduating from Yale. Yet the years of being treated as less than human, of going hungry and seeing death, could not be erased. She felt at the same time six years old and one hundred years old. In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine provokes us to look beyond the label of “victim” and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms.
