一段來自於遠古希臘的哲學故事,將數百年的希望星光串起,點亮這昏暗如晦的世界
「我無法確定今年我能讀到比這更好的小說了⋯⋯」《觀察者報》
五個主角,過去、現在、未來,橫跨數百年的時間經緯度,卻仍緊密相連。串起人類彼此之間的、不同物種之間的、活在歷史中的,以及那些將接手我們未來的,在這黑暗世界裡,仍能跨步前進的韌性以及希望。
15世紀,鄂圖曼帝國進攻東羅馬,那段充滿戰火的歲月。在最後防線君士坦堡的城牆內,13歲的Anna是裁縫學徒,縫製神父長袍維生,忙碌的工作卻不妨礙Anna求知若渴的天性。她總是到圖書館中翻閱古典書籍。這天,她讀了一篇古希臘的手寫殘篇,在哲學家第歐根尼的小故事中,一個叫做Aethon的牧羊少年,他渴望著自己能變成一隻小鳥,飛向天上的那座烏托邦天堂裡。而同時,城牆外有個不被眾人接受的兔唇少年Omier,他帶著他的牛群們投奔了入侵的軍隊之中。兩個敵對立場的少年少女,人生的路即將重合。
五百年後的愛達荷州,曾身為戰俘,意外地接手翻譯古希臘哲學家-第歐根尼手稿工作的Zeno,就著八十高齡的年紀,幫五個孩子準備一齣舞台劇,內容取自他曾翻譯過的放羊少年Aethon的故事。然而在圖書館彩排時,卻意外遇上了一樁與理想主義者有關的炸彈攻擊案。時間段的另一頭,不遠的未來裡,星空艦隊上一處封閉的船艙中,陪伴Konstance的只有一台超級電腦Sybil,以及她父親口述而來,那由Zeno翻譯過的Aethon故事。跟著這一群機智的造夢者,一步步在巨大的危險下,仍找到僅有的希望之光。
(文/博客來外文館)
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story of resilience, hope – and a book.
Bound together by a single ancient text, the unforgettable characters of Cloud Cuckoo Land are dreamers and outsiders figuring out the world around them: thirteen-year-old Anna and Omeir, an orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy, on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour and octogenarian Zeno in an attack on a public library in present-day Idaho; and Konstance, decades from now, who turns to the oldest stories to guide her community in peril.
Doerr has created a tapestry of times and places that reflects our own vast interconnectedness – with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us and those who will be here after we’re gone. Dedicated to ‘the librarians then, now, and in the years to come’, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship – of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart.