WITH DEATH LAUGHING: A NOVEL
Book ID/图书代码： 12070018C00275
English Summary/英文概要： It’s Christmastime in the Southland in this near-future vision of 21st century California. Our narrators, an ex-con turned pistol-carrying priest, and Sugar Child, a halfway house resident, have just met. The priest is a donations solicitor for Blessed World, the church and charity, and works downtown, “where I bang a tambourine and beg for money in the mellifluous, singsong voice beloved by children worldwide: Help the needy, give to the poor, amen.” But nothing is going right. Hassled by SWAT cops, and troubled after a failed marriage, he’s losing faith in himself.
Sugar Child has her own problems. She’s arrested by SWAT police, and sent to “lockdown.” Her opinion of the priest is no better: She’s never met a man who was stronger than a woman. Looking at him, she never will.
As the days speed toward Christmas—holiday shoppers aren’t giving him any money—the priest wonders whether there isn’t some new mission awaiting him, one that’ll help the people in the street, or perhaps one that will lead to his imprisonment. And as he bangs on his tambourine it becomes clear that the one thing he wants most is to take Sugar Child to the “promised land,” because what would Christmas be this year without an act of freedom.
A novel that is also a psychic history in a time of attrition, With Death Laughing is a utopian crime story where the line between thievery and charity all but disappears.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 加利福尼亚州南部地区的圣诞节正值21世纪来临之际。小说的叙述者——一名持枪牧师和一名半途留宿的居民Sugar Child，刚好相遇了。
牧师是一名自愿为极乐世界、教堂和慈善事业奉献的律师，在市中心工作。
但是一切都没能如愿。由于受到斯瓦特警察的不断烦扰，加上经历了一段失败的婚姻，他对自己失去了信心。Sugar Child也有自己的困惑。她被斯瓦特警方逮捕了，送到了“一级防范禁闭区”。而她对牧师的看法也好不到哪儿去：她还从未见过比女人还强大的男人。
离圣诞节越来越近了，度假的购物者并没有施舍给他任何一点钱。 牧师很好奇是不是已经没有新的使命在等待着他了——那个使命可以帮助街上的弱者，或者也会导致他入狱。在他转动手鼓时，他逐渐想明白了一件事——他最想做的就是带Sugar Child去迦南，因为今年的圣诞节不能再没有自由了。
这是一本小说也是一段在时间的磨炼中留下的一段历史，《死神在笑》讲述了乌托邦犯罪的故事，在故事中，偷窃和慈善几乎是不存在的。（LYR)
Awards/获奖情况：“旧金山于Plate就如同纽约于Hubert Selby Jr.：坚韧、诚实的发言人面对着肮脏污秽的群众。”——Willamette Week
“Peter Plate笔下的旧金山如同一个暴躁黑暗的地狱，那里有很多魔鬼，上帝甚至都不打算在这个地方露面。”—San Francisco Chronicle
“这是一部非常棒的小说。Peter Plate描绘了一个骇人听闻的世界，一个有缺陷、充满愤怒和绝望而亟待突破的世界——换句话说，就是我们现在所生存的世界。”—Daniel Handler
“Plate is to San Francisco what Hubert Selby Jr. is to New York: a gritty, honest speaker for the grimy masses.” —Willamette Week
“[Peter Plate’s] San Francisco is a fiery hell, where the devil rids in a squad car, and God doesn’t deign to put in an appearance.” —San Francisco Chronicle
"This is a devil of a novel. Peter Plate writes for a startling world, something lost and furious and desperate to break through—in other words, the world we’re in.”—Daniel Handler, author of Bottle Grove and All The Dirty Parts
About the Author/作者介绍： PETER PLATE在2004年荣获旧金山文学桂冠，他曾花费八年时间在废弃的建筑物里撰写小说。PETER PLATE著有多部小说，从《愤怒的黑轮》（1990）开始，他陆续撰写了关于旧金山的七部超自然主义的历史小说，现在他仍在旧金山生活和写作。Named Literary Laureate of San Francisco in 2004, PETER PLATE taught himself to write fiction during eight years spent squatting in abandoned buildings. He is the author of many novels, beginning with Black Wheel of Anger (1990) and continuing through his seven neo-noir "psychic histories" of San Francisco, where he still lives and writes today.
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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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