THE HEADMASTER’S WAGER

Book ID/图书代码： 11701211B45511

English Summary/英文概要： Percival Chen is a successful Chinese rice importer in Vietnam. He is also the headmaster of the most respected English School in Saigon – and a compulsive gambler. Proud of his Chinese inheritance, he instils the same sense of pride in his son Dai Jai. But when Dai Jai is arrested and tortured, after joining protests about Vietnamese discrimination against the Chinese population, Percival is determined to secure Dai Jai‘s release at any cost.

Percival successfully frees his son from the authorities, only to confront a darker threat in the form of Dai Jai’s Vietnamese conscription papers. He determines to send his son to China to escape the draft, not realising that he is sending him to an even harder fate at the hands of the Cultural Revolution. As war in Vietnam intensifies, Percival prepares to flee to America, but first he must get his son out of Communist China. He is ready to risk everything in order to do so. It is his final wager and one that could lose him everything.

This is a sweeping generational saga that reveals the true human cost of a father’s love for his son. It is a story of one man’s tragic misunderstandings, and his acts of greatest courage.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 親情的力量，讓一名父親能做出多大的犧牲？

從三零年代中國一路跨越到六零年代越南。戰亂的時代；親情的力量，讓一名父親能做出多大的犧牲？
Percival 西貢華人，父輩從事進口米業。對於自己華裔的血統感到十分驕傲，同樣地將這樣的觀念灌輸給兒子Dai Jai。由於華人身份的關係，無法繼承父親的生意，進而轉向開設英語學校。喜好賭博，經常流連妓女戶。學校的事務全由合夥人Mak管理。
隨著戰事升溫，Dai Jai 收到徵召令。Percival 為讓兒子逃過徵兵一事，決定將Dai Jai 送往中國。Percival 未料Dai Jai將陷入更大的危機中…因為當時的中國正值文化大革命時期。
Percival思子心切，情婦Jacqueline 陪伴他度過許多寂寞的時刻。因此不顧Mak的反對，他已逐步地愛上這名美越混血的女子。當Jacqueline要求離開越南前往美國，Percival 決定不惜任何代價，要帶人在中國的Dai Jai一同離開。
然而，這將是他人生最後一場賭局，或許會就此失去一切…(Vincent)

Awards/获奖情况：finalist for the 2012 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction

Rights Sold:
Canada: Doubleday (pub Spring 2012);
UK: Fourth Estate (http://www.4thestate.co.uk/author/vincent-lam/);
US: Hogarth Press/Random House.

“Lam has created a genuine page-turner. The author takes full advantage of the inherent suspense as the fall of Saigon looms and Chen finally realizes that he and his family may not survive the violence of the Viet Cong. The Headmaster’s Wager is a novel full of surprises and excitement.” —Quill & Quire

“I love this book’s vivid realization and its deft weave of conspiracies. I especially admire Lam’s ability to transport a reader. . . . A colourful, suspenseful depiction of Chinese living in Vietnam during the war.” —The Globe and Mail

“Lam writes tellingly about intrigue, political collusion and the clash of cultures.” —Kirkus Reviews

“With the deft use of dreams and flashbacks, Lam fills in the family back-story without losing the forward momen­tum of the gripping political tale that echoes the intrigues of Dr. Zhivago and Graham Greene. Arresting poetic images of pleasure and pain, of sex and death, are stitched together with surgical precision . . . An alchemist who has turned rough familial coal into literary gold (and with any luck, cinematic gold), Lam has forged a testament to the immut­able power of the filial bond, mapping the con­scious and unconscious transmission of gifts and curses of a single family, and therefore all families.” —Literary Review of Canada

“Lam marshals his characters with humor, suspense, and tenderness as the fall of Saigon looms. Even as Percival navigates the minefield of shifting ideologies, treachery, and paranoia—incurring one inconceivable cost upon another—his devotion suffuses every page. Lam depicts a world caught in an implacable cycle of violence, leavened only by the grace of a father’s love.” —Publisher’s Weekly

"The Headmaster’s Wager does what only the very best literature can do: it provides characters you care about deeply (even as they break your heart) and has plot twists you don’t see coming but then couldn’t imagine any other way. Vincent Lam has written a mature and rewarding novel of the highest quality, and Percival Chen will remain with you long after the final page. This is an exceptional book." —Andrew Davidson, author of The Gargoyle

“A first novel of astonishing force, craft and beauty, The Headmaster’s Wager conjures up a dizzyingly evocative wartime Saigon in the story of Percival Chen, a Chinese schoolmaster in Vietnam. This extraordinary book made me weep. Read it.” —Janice Y.K. Lee, author of the New York Times bestseller The Piano Teacher

About the Author/作者介绍： Dr. Vincent Lam is an emergency physician who also does international air evacuation work and expedition medicine on Arctic and Antarctic ships. He is the co-author of THE FLU PANDEMIC AND YOU: A Canadian Guide. His debut work of fiction, BLOODLETTING & MIRACULOUS CURES was the first short story collection to win the prestigious Giller Prize (2006). A #1 national bestseller in Canada, it was also shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award (2007), the Toronto Book Award (2007), and shortlisted for the Libris Award (2007).
Vincent Lam，出生於加拿大安大略省，成長於渥太華，他的父祖輩是來自於越南的華人。目前擔任急診室醫師，同時也從事國際空中撤離工作，以及南、北極考察隊的醫療服務。著有多本醫學相關的作品，及一本短篇故事集《醫生這件事》(BLOODLETTING & MIRACULOUS CURES)，該書還獲得加拿大最高榮譽的文學獎吉勒獎Giller Prize。

Format:电子手稿

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

原文第一章内容：暂无

手稿：暂无

大纲：暂无