波蘭女作家歐嘉(Olga Tokarczuk)過去因為直言批評政府,遭受到保守人士的威脅,一本敢說,敢做,敢寫的性格,是波蘭文壇的一朵奇葩。如今憑著本作,獲得 2018 年度國際曼布克獎。
故事背景是一場穿梭時間與空間的旅程,各種時間軸與故事交織在一起,提出諸多疑惑,解剖學與死亡,時間與移動,旅行與移民,最後都巧妙地融合在故事主線。
蕭邦的心臟,暗地裡被送回了華沙。
一名女子回到波蘭,為了讓她的甜心解脫。
一名年輕的男子,正因為他的妻兒消失而抓狂。
這些詭異的故事與人物瘋狂而有趣,看似若有所指的揶揄與不經意的玩笑,都是作者苦心經營的細節,觸動人心,令人難以抗拒。當故事與歷史交錯,看似毫無關聯的安排下,卻緊密圍繞著相同的命題。
你從來哪?往哪去?現在在哪裡?任何人,不論何時都是旅人。(文 / 博客來編譯)
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
A visionary work of fiction by "A writer on the level of W. G. Sebald" (Annie Proulx)
"A magnificent writer." -- Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize-winning author of Secondhand Time
"A beautifully fragmented look at man's longing for permanence.... Ambitious and complex." -- Washington Post
From the incomparably original Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, Flights interweaves reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion, and migration. Chopin's heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going? we call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller's answer.