WORTHLESS MEN

Book ID/图书代码： 11701212B55194

English Summary/英文概要： It is market day in an English city two years into the First World War: the farmers are coming in from the country, the cattle are being driven through the streets, and that evening a trainload of wounded soldiers is due to arrive. Weaving together multiple viewpoints, Andrew Cowan creates a panoramic, vivid portrait of a place as individual as it is archetypal. His is a community where the war permeates all classes of society; where the factory now produces barbed wire, the women are doing men’s jobs, and young men are no longer so eager to answer the call to go off to war.

At the local mansion, its new hospital tents to the ready, waits Montague Beckwith, himself a psychological casualty of the war. In the poorest part of town, Winnie Barley prays that Walter, her missing son, will be on the train (but that her violent husband will not be). In the pharmacy, Gertie Dobson dreams of romance while her father keeps unsuitable men at bay. Walter is everywhere - a ghostly presence who watches as the girl he loved from a distance is drawn into Montague’s orbit.

Here is the tragic story of a casual betrayal, and a boy who proves that those at the bottom of the heap – the worthless ones - can be the most valiant of them all.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 兩年一度的英國城市集貿日已經轉變成了一場巨大的戰役。來自于這個國家的農民們，正驅趕著牛群穿越街道，因為晚上載有受傷士兵的列火車即將抵達這裡。
在本地的大樓附近，新醫院的帳篷正在支起，等待著因戰爭而精神受到創傷的病人蒙塔古•貝克威茨。在小鎮最為艱辛的這一季，Winnie Barley/溫妮•巴里在行駛的列車上，為她失蹤的兒子Walter/沃爾特祈禱，（虧得她那位生性暴力的丈夫不在車上）。在藥店，Gertie Dobson/格蒂•布森幻想著一段浪漫戀情，而她的父親一直阻止著這位走投無路的青年。到處都是沃爾特的身影，一個幽靈看著他愛的女孩從遠處被拉入蒙塔古軌道。
交織成多重視點，Andrew Cowan/安德魯•考恩創建了一幅全景的，格外生動的具有典型獨特風格的故事景點。這裡是一個被戰爭起伏滲透的地方；那裡的工廠現都在生產鐵絲網、婦女們從事著男人們做的工作，而年輕人不再是那麼渴望去回應國王的召喚。而在這不經意背叛的悲劇故事中，一個身處社會底層的被證明毫無價值的男孩 – 恰恰可能是他們所有人中最為勇敢的一位。(Sandy)

Awards/获奖情况：Rights sold: UK: Sceptre (pub February 2013)

PRAISE FOR PIG (. )

’A coming-of-age story as strange and surprising, in its way, as THE CATCHER IN THE RYE’ (New York Times )

’A first novel of extraordinary poise and accomplishment, treating a boy’s coming of age amid the squalid realities of the new British underclass with a delicacy and lyricism which is both gripping and moving’ (Michael Dibdin )

’The detail is immaculately recorded; the effect is heartbreaking’ (Louisa Young, Sunday Times )

’[A] wholly satisfying book, quietly beautiful and inescapably ominous’ (David Buckley, Observer )

’Beautifully evoked ... Cowan writes with a deceptive simplicity’ (Amanda Craig, The Times )

PRAISE FOR WHAT I KNOW (. )

’Elusive, strange and complex . . . an emotionally and philosophically rich existential private eye novel . . . Slowly, with great subtlety and skill, Cowan . . . explores the private battles that rage silently in every home’ (William Sutcliffe, Guardian )

’Gripping. We are mesmerised by its smoothness of plot and prose, perfectly designed to make the odd and the irregular stand out with intensity . . . Cowan has succeeded in making the ordinary incredibly engrossing - something that many try to do but few do well.’ (Scotland on Sunday )

’Its willed restraint and implicit solitude are wonderfully sustained . . . a masterclass in intimate understatement which proves that the brain is indeed our most erotic organ and the imagination its muse.’ (Scotsman )

’[Cowan] paints a patient, exact and quietly powerful portrait of lives slowly being stripped of their secrets and delusions.’ (Sunday Times )

About the Author/作者介绍： 安德魯•考恩以優異的成績獲得東英吉利大學(University Of East Anglia)英語學位和美國研究創意寫作文學碩士的畢業生。在2004年加入該學院之前，他曾兩次入選皇家文學基金東英吉利大學(University Of East Anglia)的寫作會員，與學生們共同探討創意寫作技巧。他曾是阿爾文基金會的長期創意寫作導師，同時他還是已經出版的12種語言，五部小說的作者，他的作品包括入圍布克獎的《豬》，該小說同時還最終入圍其他五個文學獎項提名，獲得貝蒂特拉斯克獎，年度作家俱樂部第一小說獎，露絲•哈登紀念獎、蘇格蘭藝術委員會圖書獎和《星期日泰晤士報》的年輕作家獎。《一致之處》和《甲殼類動物》同時競選入圍藝術局助學金。2005年發佈的《我所知的》榮獲藝術委員會作家獎。他所撰寫的創意寫作指南，《小說的撰寫藝術》，在2011年由培生朗文出版。新小說《卑微之人》將在2013年發表。

Andrew Cowan is the Director of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and the author of five novels, including PIG (1994), which won a Betty Trask Award, the Ruth Hadden Memorial Prize, the Authors’ Club First Novel Award, a Scottish arts Council Book Award, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for five other literary prizes. His other novels are COMMON GROUND (1996), CRUSTACEANS (2000), WHAT I KNOW (2005), which won an Arts Council Writer’s Award, and WORTHLESS MEN, which will be published in 2013. His guidebook THE ART OF WRITING FICTION was published in 2011.

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：

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