THE UMBRELLA TREE

Book ID/图书代码： 11712013B61927

English Summary/英文概要： ‘Miss Helayna,’ Kulu is calling me.
It is my first real memory. I am three years old. He calls me by my name and he makes the middle vowel very long, even longer than usual. He takes my tiny white hand in his.
His hand is black, as black as his face and his bare legs, but the palm of his hand is pink like mine. We walk to the gates.
‘They’re coming,’ he says.
We must have done this before because I know what is coming and I am both frightened and excited. I hold his hand tightly.
We stand inside the closed gates and he lifts me up so that I can see.
The baboons are coming across the scrubland. Some of the babies are on their mothers’ backs, some are clinging to their chests.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： “海莲娜小姐，”库库在呼唤我。
这是我最初的记忆。今年我三岁了。他喊出我的名字，并将我名字中间的元音拉的特别长，甚至长到很古怪。他拉起我白皙的小手，握在他的手中。
他的手是黑色的，如同他的脸和他光裸的腿一样，但他的手掌心是和我一样的粉色。我们走到门边。他对我说道：“他们来了”。
我依稀感到曾经做过同样的事情，因为我知道什么即将到来，我的内心满是惊恐与兴奋。我紧紧地握住了他的手。
我们站在紧闭的门内，他将我举起，以便我能清晰的看到外面的情况。
狒狒们穿过了灌木丛。有些小狒狒还伏在母亲的背上，另一些则是攀在母亲的胸前。（DC）

Awards/获奖情况：对于这本书，我无法明确表达自己的感受。书中确实有很棒的故事（或者说数个故事），而故事的开始也十分有趣。通过年仅18岁少年的恐惧的双眼，从非洲到都柏林无疑是一段有趣的旅程。

我认为如果本书被命名为《巧合》而非《伞树》，并随后附上几乎不可能发生的巧合，并且最后一个最为出人意料，那么我觉得可能会更容易为读者们所接收。如果捉着写出了一个好莱坞式的结局，我想我不会认同，事实也的确并非如此！直至昨晚我才完成了本书的创作，但此时此刻我已经开始奋力回忆书中主要角色的姓名了，然后海莲娜这个名字出现在了我的脑海中。海莲娜的生命似乎在以一种惊人的速度消逝，我希望能努力从她身上挖掘出更多关于生命的真谛。我希望她能够回到肯尼亚，联系上母亲或是找一份工作，甚至是和康迪以外的人结识，做点别的事情。。。。。。前一秒钟她还在大学，200页纸后，她的儿子已然步入青春期。她的邻居同时也是朋友的康迪曾是书中的中心人物，而她的丈夫弗雷德则是被顺带提及。全书直至最末，或许都无法让你产生那种完全投入不能自拔的感觉。当我读到最后几页时，我抬起双眼凝望天空。我想我还是对它持保留意见。

I can’t make up my mind if I liked this book or not. There was a good story (or couple of stories) in here, and it started off well. The move from Africa to Dublin was interesting through young and scared 18 year old eyes.

I think If this book had been called Coincidences, and not ’The umbrella Tree’, then the succession of unlikely coincidences, and the last in particular, might have been more acceptable to the reader. I wouldn’t expect a Hollywood ending from this writer, and I wouldn’t want one, but there is a middle ground! I finished this book yesterday and already I’m struggling to remember the name of the main character, although it has come to me now, it’s Helena. Helena’s life seemed to slip past at an astonishing speed. I had been rooting for her to get a bit more out of life. I wished she’d go back to Kenya and try to connect with her mother, or get a job, or make another friend besides Conti, do SOMEthing... One second she was at university, 200 pages later her son was a teenager. Her neighbour and friend Conti was a central character, while her husband Fred got the odd mention. By the very end of the book, you’re not drawn in enough to care as much as you should. I raised my eyes to heaven when I read the last few pages. I felt a bit conned.

About the Author/作者介绍：

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