SOMETHING LIKE HAPPY
Book ID/图书代码： 11701212B58264
English Summary/英文概要： In these remarkable stories, John Burnside takes us into the lives of men and women trapped in marriage, ensnared by drink, diminished by disappointment; all kinds of women, all kinds of men – lonely, unfaithful, dying – driving empty roads at night. These are people for whom the idea of ‘home’ has become increasingly intangible, hard to believe – and happiness, or grace, or freedom, all now seem to belong in some kind of dream, or a fable they might have read in a children’s picture book. As he says in one story, ‘All a man has is his work and his sense of himself, all the secret life he holds inside that nobody else can know.’ But in each of these normal, damaged lives, we are shown something extraordinary: a dogged belief in some kind of hope or beauty that flies in the face of all reason and is, as a result, both transfiguring and heart-rending.
John Burnside is unique in contemporary British letters: he is one of our best living poets, but he is also a thrillingly talented writer of fiction. These exquisitely written pieces, each weighted so perfectly, opens up the whole wound of a life in one moment – and each of these twelve short stories carries the freight and density of a great novel.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 通过这些令人难忘的故事，约翰•伯恩赛德将带领我们进入另一个世界，在那里充满了深陷婚姻泥潭的男女，他们用酒精麻痹自己，在一次次的失忆中逐渐否定自身的价值；所有的这些女人和男人们都有着一些共同之处----他们孤独，不忠，了无生机---他们在深夜飞车在无人的街道之上。对于他们而言，“家”是一个虚幻而不可及的概念，因而他们无法相信---而所谓的快乐，高雅和自由不过是美梦一场，是童年那些绘有美丽插图的童书里的寓言故事。正如作者曾在其一个故事中提及“人除了工作和自我意识便一无所有了，而他内心深处的那些秘密最终也不过只有他一个观众而已“。然而书中每一个看似正常却实则支离破碎的生活故事背后，却蕴藏着能够震撼我们心灵的力量,那是对于某种希望和美好的执着信念，它悍然无视一切所谓的理智，让你从悲痛之中重生。
约翰•伯恩赛德是当代英国文坛上一道独特的声音：他活着时便已经是一名极为优秀的诗人，同时他也是一名天分极高的小说作家。本书中这一篇篇精致的小故事，每一个都完美得恰如其分，在一瞬间便为我们打开了人生的伤痛之门，而与此同时这十二个短小的故事，每一个都具备着一部伟大小说应当具有的品性与深度。(DC)
Awards/获奖情况：
About the Author/作者介绍： 约翰•伯恩赛德最新的两部作品：《苦闷之下》入围2011年Costa奖；而其诗歌集《黑猫骨》同时荣获2011年Forward Prize和 T.S. Eliot诗歌奖。John Burnside’s last two books were the novel, A Summer of Drowning, shortlisted for the 2011 Costa Prize, and his poetry collection, Black Cat Bone, which won both the 2011 Forward Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry.
Format:
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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