FARTHEST FIELD: AN INDIAN STORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Book ID/图书代码： 11701215B82300
English Summary/英文概要： Farthest Field is ‘one of those rare and extraordinary books which bring people alive again’ (Michael Holroyd). In a book in which public and private are always interlaced, Raghu Karnad brings to life the loves, aspirations, confusions and bitter heartaches of his own family in WW2 – and rescues a largely forgotten strand of history.
Three young men gazed at him from silver-framed photographs in his grandmother’s house, ‘beheld but not noticed, as angels are in a frieze full of mortal strugglers’. They had all been in the Second World War, a fact that surprised him. Indians had never figured in his idea of the war, nor the war in his idea of India – and he thought that he had a good idea of both.
One of them, Bobby, even looked a bit like him, but Raghu Karnad had not noticed until he was the same age as they were in their photo-frames. Then he learned about the Parsi boy from the sleepy south Indian coast, so eager to follow his brothers-in-law into the colonial forces and onto the front line. Manek, dashing and confident, was a pilot with India’s fledgling air force; gentle Ganny became an army doctor in the arid North-West Frontier. Bobby’s pursuit would carry him as far as the deserts of Iraq and the green hell of the Burma battlefront.
The years 1939-45 might be the most revered, deplored and replayed in modern history. Yet India’s extraordinary role has been concealed, from itself and from the world. In riveting prose, Karnad retrieves the story of a single family – a story of love, rebellion, loyalty and uncertainty – and with it, the greatest revelation that is India’s Second World War.
Farthest Field narrates the lost epic of India’s war, in which the largest volunteer army in history (2.5m men) fought for the British Empire, even as its countrymen fought to be free of it. It carries us from Madras to Peshawar, Egypt to Burma – unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world and swept up in its violence.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 本书中，作者Raghu Karnad生动描绘了自己家庭在二战中交织着爱和欲困惑和心碎的经历，再现了一段被人遗忘的历史。
1939年至1945年可谓是现代历史上最受关注、最令人痛心的一段时间。而印度在其中所发挥的重要作用却被掩埋了。在这部引人入胜的散文集中，作者重现了一个家庭有关爱、背叛、忠诚和不确定的故事，同时揭示了二战期间印度的真实情况。
本书讲述了早已被遗忘的印度战争，期间历史上最大规模的志愿军（250万人）为大英帝国而战。它将读者带到了巴德拉斯、白沙瓦、埃及和缅甸——一个置身于飞速发展的世界之中的年轻家庭的传奇故事在读者面前徐徐展开……（LYR）
Awards/获奖情况：“《最遥远的战场》属于那种罕见而非凡的作品，让人物再次变得鲜活起来”——Michael Holroyd
“在记者Raghu Karnad杰出的处女作《最遥远的战场》中，他讲述了自己的成长故事——从小就对相框中三张年轻人的面孔非常熟悉，却从来没有问过他们的名字……在这部如诗般美妙的散文集中，他发挥一流小说家才拥有的想象力，准确传达了历史的真相。浪漫和丧失的悲痛弥漫全书，令人动容……令人难忘。”——《每日电讯》
“In Farthest Field, the distinguished journalist Raghu Karnad’s spectacular first book, he describes how as a child he grew up familiar with the faces of three young men contained within three silver-framed sepia photographs, but never asked their names….. In prose that verges at times on poetry, he writes with the imaginative gift of a first-rate novelist in order to deliver the truth. Romance and the attendant grief of loss permeate the book alongside passages that are unexpectedly moving….. Unforgettable.” Daily Telegraph
“From the very first page it is the brilliance of the writing that stands out. (An) imaginative power, intelligence and descriptive richness of a narrative that, again and again, startles by its originality before convincing by its utter fitness…. This book is an affirmation of life, not a polemic against empire or colonial injustice. For all the damning clarity of its political analysis, it is wonderfully generous, full of intelligence, compassion, curiosity and brilliant writing… It has the stamp of imaginative truth about it and we can ask nothing more of any kind of writing.” David Crane, Spectator
‘A bravura feat of literary-historical imagination … Karnad marshals and orders a huge range of materials, locations and actions with apparently effortless skill, making everything cohere not only through a galloping and affecting narrative but, crucially, through a passionate moral core. Karnad’s handling of military action sets the heart racing: the chapters on the Imphal offensive of 1944 should be mandatory reading for writers of action thrillers … The writing of history intersects gloriously with several other genres in this moving, eloquent, intelligent work’ Neel Mukherjee, Financial Times
‘I wanted to savour his prose. That this is Karnad’s first book just goes to show that well-crafted writing needs no authorial pedigree … Karnad illuminates brilliantly the ’so much owed by so many’ John Keay, Literary Review
About the Author/作者介绍： Raghu Karnad，获奖作家、记者，住在印度班加罗尔和新德里之间。他的散文详细讲述了本书的缘起，Simon Schama评价他的作品“才华横溢”。《最遥远的战场》是他的第一本书。Raghu Karnad is an award-winning writer and journalist who lives between Bangalore and New Delhi, India. His essay detailing the origins of this book was described by Simon Schama as ‘nothing short of brilliant’. ‘Farthest Field’ is his first book.
Format:HARDCOVER
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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