Sing, Unburied, Sing

2017美國國家圖書獎小說類得主2011年以《搶救》(Salvage the Bones)獲得美國國家圖書獎的黑人女作家潔思敏．瓦德（Jesmyn Ward）又一感人力作。帶著莫里森(Toni Morrison)與福克納(William Faulkner)的風格，一場穿越密西西比過去與現在的史詩之旅，將典型的公路小說融入21世紀的美國鄉間，一幅親密的家庭肖像畫，一部帶著希望與掙扎的故事。「抒情又強悍，瓦德精練的語言緊緊地抓住書中人物艱困的生活、彼此間問題重重的關係以及他們在精神上的深度。」-《圖書館期刊》星級評論Jojo是個黑白混血的小男孩，與三歲的妹妹Kayla和外祖父母生活在一起。偶而出現在他們生活裡的，還有他那個有毒癮的母親Leonie。不吸毒的時候，Leonie是個愛孩子的母親；毒癮一犯就不是那麼一回事了。當她嗑藥到最嗨的時候，她那個遭到白人殺害的哥哥便出現在眼前，對Leonie來說，哥哥的幻影折磨著她又撫慰著她。Jojo的外婆因為癌症就要離世，他的外公是個沉默又堅韌的男人，過去所犯下的錯一直折磨著他的心。外公不僅要養家，還要教導Jojo如何成為一個男子漢。而Jojo不僅是個好哥哥，還得時常扮演母親的角色。當兄妹倆的白人父親即將出獄，Leonie滿懷希望地帶著兩個孩子踏上了前往州立監獄的旅程，一路上，他們會遇到什麼樣的危險，前方又會給他們帶來什麼樣的希望？A searing and profound Southern odyssey by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.In Jesmyn Ward’s first novel since her National Book Award–winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, The Odyssey and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey through Mississippi’s past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle. Ward is a major American writer, multiply awarded and universally lauded, and in Sing, Unburied, Sing she is at the height of her powers.Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she’s high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie’s children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.Sing, Unburied, Sing grapples with the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power, and limitations, of the bonds of family. Rich with Ward’s distinctive, musical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing is a majestic new work and an essential contribution to American literature.