SKIOS

Book ID/图书代码： 05380011B48019

English Summary/英文概要： In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live the only immediate signs of the Second World War are the blackout at night and a single random bombsite. But the two boys suspect that the comfortably ordinary houses in the Close and their inhabitants are not what they seem. As Keith, the leader in all their enterprises, authoritatively informs the trusting Stephen, the whole district is riddled with secret passages and underground laboratories - hideaways for any number of murderers, unsung war heroes and secret agents. Then one day Keith announces an even more disconcerting discovery: the Germans have infiltrated his own family. And when the secret underground world they have dreamed up emerges from the shadows they find themselves engulfed in mysteries far deeper and more painful than they had bargained for. ’Deeply satisfying . . . Frayn has written nothing better.’ Independent ’Frayn has never written more seductively and surely than in this book.’ Sunday Times

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 在陽光明媚的希臘島嶼上的米克諾斯度假的勝地，Fred Toppler基金會的年度演講是由世界著名的權威科學組織，Norman Wilfred博士所做。他原來是出奇地年輕和迷人- 而不是他們一直所想的那種威勢人物。基金會的來賓很快吃光了他做的菜。就這樣，Nikki，捷足先登的移民，一位迷人的，能幹的組織者。
與此同時，在島的另一端的偏遠別墅，Nikki的老同學Georgie等待著一個聲名狼藉的投機者，她貿然地答應一同去度假，這位投機者十分與眾不同，所以未能露面。由於一個不幸的意外事故鏈，Nikki和她的老同學被困在別墅裡，有這麼一位禿頭的老紳士，Norman Wilfre博士，他不知自己身在何處，遺失了自己的行李，面對現實的感覺讓他的脾氣漸漸回復了正常——他擁有的一切除了那些經常旅遊演講時用的有關科學組織那些老一套的陳詞濫調... (Sandy)

Awards/获奖情况："This is one of the most amusingly complicated novels since David Lodge’s SMALL WORLD. While the word ’Skios’ suggests the Greek root for ’knowledge’ or ’knowing’, most of the characters in Frayn’s novel don’t have a clue about what’s going on. No matter. By page 2, readers will know without any doubt that they are in for a wonderful time." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

"Its pages are so brilliantly funny that tears of laughter make the print swim in front of your eyes... Alongside the virtuoso comic choreography, the prose is alive with deadpan wit. A shimmer of irony plays over scenes... Sardonic metaphors, neat puns and smart jokes further burnish the book’s sparkle... SKIOS leaves you floating with so much euphoria." - Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times

"Truly does make you laugh out loud. I sniggered on the train and the bus; I sniggered in the kitchen, the bedroom and, on one occasion, in the shower. I wasn’t reading the book in the shower, obviously. But I was thinking about it, and that was enough – [SKIOS] really is hilarious." - Rachel Cooke, The Observer

"Frayn’s absorbing new book, SKIOS, shows him at his comic best... the plot works like an ingenious and all-consuming machine but the people trapped inside it are defiantly full of vitality... The physical comedy is expertly managed...this is a transfixingly witty novel...it’s covertly serious, packaging metaphysics in a style that’s cinematic and inventive." - Henry Hitchings, Financial Times

"‘There’s no denying that SKIOS could be seen as an exercise in technical virtuosity... even such a flat-out comedy as this soon proves to have its serious undertones... the theme of things not being what they seem continually broadens... the laughs are accompanied by something far more apocalyptic. Yet, in the end, what makes SKIOS such an impressive piece of work is not that these elements co-exist, but that they are so completely blended... In his play COPENHAGEN, Frayn famously explored the Uncertainty Principle through a meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. Here, he does the same thing through... hugely entertaining farce." - (5 stars) James Walton, The Daily Telegraph

"Frayn… builds his puzzle so painstakingly and tells his story so engagingly, you want to jump in his lap and build a nest for winter... such good company you hate for the story to end." - The New York Times Book Review

"SKIOS is pure farce: a comic novel of the old school... The novel hurtles along... It even takes a swerve in the direction of metafiction as it reaches its denouement - perhaps irresistible in a novel powered by improbable chains of causation, and when its author is so conscious a craftsman. But really, this is a romp - tightly and absurdly plotted, consistently amusing, and studded with gentle good jokes... The writing is quietly but unobtrusively stylish." - Sam Leith, Literary Review

"Farce isn’t something that always works in fiction, but Michael Frayn is an urbane British Feydeau with a matchless eye for embarrassment and misunderstanding." - Kate Saunders, The Times

About the Author/作者介绍： Michael Frayn 1933年出生在倫敦，作為一名記者，開始了他的職業生涯。他寫過幾本小說，包括《SPIES》（間諜），這本書榮獲2002年度Man Booker Prize（英國年度最重要的獎項曼布克獎）和Whitbread Award（惠特布蘭特）小說獎，以及《HEADLONG》（奔放）入圍1999年的Booker Prize（布克文學獎），惠特布蘭特小說獎和James Tait Memorial Prize（黑色紀念小說獎）。他的作品改編成13部戲劇，從《NOISES OFF》（糊塗戲班，已改遍喜酒電影）到《COPENHAGEN》（哥本哈根）和《AFTERLIFE》（來生），2008年首演。

Michael Frayn was born in London in 1933 and began his career as a journalist on the Guardian and the Observer. SPIES was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2002 and won the Whitbread Award for Fiction 2002. HEADLONG was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize, the Whitbread Novel Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. Other novels include TOWARDS THE END OF THE MORNING, THE TRICK OF IT and A LANDING ON THE SUN, as well as THE TIN MEN, NOW YOU KNOW, SWEET DREAMS and CELIA’S SECRET. His thirteen plays (which are represented by Nicki Stoddart at United Agents) range from NOISES OFF to COPENHAGEN, and he has translated a number of works, mostly from the Russian. His play, DEMOCRACY, received the Evening Standard Best Play Award and transferred to the Wyndhams Theatre after a hugely successful run at the National Theatre.

His memoir of his father and his childhood, MY FATHER’S FORTUNE: A LIFE, was published in 2010, and was awarded the 2011 PEN/Ackerley Prize and shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Biography Award. SKIOS, a farce set on a Greek island, was published by Faber & Faber in May 2012 and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. In 2014, MATCHBOX, a collection of very short plays, was published by Faber & Faber. It was adapted for BBC Radio 4 and performed in Hampstead theatre. In 2017, a second collection of short plays, POCKET PLAYHOUSE, was also published by Faber & Faber. He is married to the biographer and critic Claire Tomalin.

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/80/the-art-of-theater-no-15-michael-frayn

Format:电子手稿

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