WEIGHTLESS: A NOVEL
Book ID/图书代码： 04300013B66129
English Summary/英文概要： WEIGHTLESS is a novel inspired by the widely documented suicide of high-school student Phoebe Prince. Set in rural Alabama over the course of one school year, it tells the story of fifteen year-old Carolyn Lessing, a girl who is both loved and loathed, talented and troubled. Narrated by an unidentified group of teenage girls, and intercut with newspaper clippings, blog entries and Facebook feeds, this is a novel of adolescence, sex, social networking, cliques, and bullying – both virtual and face-to-face.The novel is very topical exploring the absence of agency, empathy and responsibility felt by teenagers, and the nature of bullying in the social media era. While bullying is an age-old problem, the nature of cyber bullying is new: there is often no escape, it can be experienced 24/7, and meanness is felt more acutely and then spread to a wider audience. The reaction of parents and the media to these phenomena are also explored: their desire for immediate action, black and white responses.
The themes of WEIGHTLESS are universal. The novel is a meditation on teenage life, a coming of age story for the digital age, an examination of the hypocrisy of small town life, where rumour ends and truth begins.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 《无重力》是一部根据记载在案的高中生菲比•普林斯自杀故事改编创作而成的小说。故事发生在阿拉巴马州的郊区，在学年过程中，十五岁的少女卡洛琳•莱辛既遭人喜爱，又受人怨恨，她拥有才华，却又同时充满着烦恼。全书由一群匿名的少女展开叙述，其间穿插着剪报、博客以及脸书上的评论反馈，总而言之，这是一部有关于青春、性、社交网络、小群体以及欺凌的小说，全书不仅写实而且让人读来颇有一种身临其境之感。
本书局部探讨了青少年们所感受到的缺乏力量、共鸣以及责任感，以及社会媒体领域欺负弱势群体的普遍现象和本质。尽管欺凌早已是一个陈旧的话题，然而在网络空间里的欺凌则是一种全新的现象：通常受欺凌者根本无处逃遁，这种经历是一天二十四小时时刻存在的，并且当更大的群体获知并参与其中时，这种恶意的欺凌行为会显得更为尖锐和明显。与此同时，本书还对家长和媒体对这种行为现象的反应进行了一定的探究：他们总是希望能够采取即刻生效的措施，并对事件作出立刻的是非判断。
《无重力》中的主题是普遍存在且适用于所有人的。小说对青少年生活展开思考，对于在数字时代中迈入成年期进行思考，小镇生活中的虚伪终将逝去，而流言的尽头则将成为真实的开端。（DC）
Awards/获奖情况：班纳的初次登台之作，由圣马丁出版社带来的《伊丽莎白•比尔》一经发行便引起了北美版权商们的关注，他们将目光投向了其第一部小说作品《无重力》 。艾德•维克特机构的莎拉•威廉姆斯在拍卖会上售出了该部作品的版权。在《无重力》一书中，主要角色是一名“黄金少女”，在举家从新泽西搬至阿拉巴马后，她也在新的学校展开了生活。作者在文风方面显得尤为怀念唐娜•塔特的《秘史》“全书一边完美的呈现出当代社会青少年间的友情，一方面又极致地描绘出其阴暗的一面，并以怀念尼克•麦克多奈尔的方式向我们娓娓道来。”SMP Nabs Bannan’s Debut
Elizabeth Beier at St. Martin’s Press took North American rights to Sarah Bannan’s first novel, Weightless. Ed Victor agent Sarah Williams sold the book at auction. In Weightless, SMP said, the main protagonist is a “golden girl” who has just started at a new school after her family relocated from New Jersey to Alabama. The author’s style, SMP added, is reminiscent of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History “while exposing the kind of pitch-perfect description of the dark side of modern friendship in groups that’s reminiscent of Nick McDonnell’s 12.”
’Riveting, agile, and beautifully judged: one of
those essential stories that will capture the
imagination of different generations of
readers.’
-Colum McCann
"There is nothing new about bullying, but many
of the weapons are new. Sarah Bannan brings
us right into the middle of bullying, 21st
century-style, in a novel that is chilling,
engrossing and very, very impressive.’
-Roddy Doyle
"A provocative and timely novel that unsettles
the reader and challenges our view of
contemporary youth. Its subject matter is
universal; parents and children around the
world will recognise the difficult and fractured
society it depicts.’
-John Boyne
About the Author/作者介绍： 作者莎拉•班纳，1978年出生于纽约州北部。莎拉在成长的过程中频繁搬家，她曾居住在德克萨斯州和阿拉巴马州的弗罗里达，并曾在那里就读高中。2000年她从乔治敦大学毕业并于此后一直定居爱尔兰。作者曾从事各类艺术类工作，2007年以来她一直在艺术协会中担任文学先锋人物。2010年，她参与了Faber学院写作课程。本书是她的第一部小说作品。The author, Sarah Bannan, was born in 1978 in upstate New York. She moved frequently when she was growing up, living in Texas, in Florida and in Alabama, where she attended high school. She graduated from Georgetown University in 2000 and then moved to Ireland, where she has lived ever since. She has worked in various roles in the arts and, since 2007 she has been Head of Literature with the Arts Council. In 2010, she took part in the Faber Academy’s Novel Writing course. This is her first novel.
Format:
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：UK (Bloomsbury)
US (St Martins Press)
Germany (Droemer)
Hungary (Gabo)
Italy (Newton Compton).
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