Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

《Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights》是2015年Random House出版社出版的圖書，作者是Salman Rushdie。

基本介紹

• 中文名：Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
• 作者：Salman Rushdie
• 出版社：Random House
• ISBN：9780812998917

內容簡介

From Salman Rushdie, one of the great writers of our time, comes a spellbinding work of fiction that blends history, mythology, and a timeless love story. A lush, richly layered novel in which our world has been plunged into an age of unreason, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is a breathtaking achievement and an enduring testament to the power of storytelling.

In the near future, after a storm strikes New York City, the strangenesses begin. A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own sub–Stan Lee creation. Abandoned at the mayor’s office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes and boils. A seductive gold digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining.

Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from the whimsical, capricious, wanton creatures known as the jinn, who live in a world separated from ours by a veil. Centuries ago, Dunia, a princess of the jinn, fell in love with a mortal man of reason. Together they produced an astonishing number of children, unaware of their fantastical powers, who spread across generations in the human world.

Once the line between worlds is breached on a grand scale, Dunia’s children and others will play a role in an epic war between light and dark spanning a thousand and one nights—or two years, eight months, and twenty-eight nights. It is a time of enormous upheaval, in which beliefs are challenged, words act like poison, silence is a disease, and a noise may contain a hidden curse.

Inspired by the traditional “wonder tales” of the East, Salman Rushdie’s novel is a masterpiece about the age-old conflicts that remain in today’s world. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is satirical and bawdy, full of cunning and folly, rivalries and betrayals, kismet and karma, rapture and redemption.

作者簡介

薩爾曼‧魯西迪Salman Rushdie

（1947.06.19-）

印度獨立的那一年，魯西迪誕生於孟買一個穆斯林家族。他於中學時期起移居英國，後在劍橋大學攻讀歷史。他是當今世界最富勇氣、最具爭議性的名家之一，也是歷年公認諾貝爾文學獎熱門人選，有「後殖民文學教父」之美譽，另與石黑一雄、奈波爾並稱「英國文壇移民三雄」。

魯西迪的作品忠實反映印度次大陸多元而神祕的古老文化，往往融神話、寓言故事、史實於一爐，以華麗筆法與浩瀚架構為印度民族的繁複歷史形塑史詩般的故事。他擅長以魔幻寫實的風格寫出西方讀者素來陌生的東方文化，不僅揭開印度長年以來的厚重面紗，也在小說中建立一家史觀，在全世界讀者面前奠定「新印度」的形象。

一九七五年，魯西迪以科幻小說《Grimus》出道。真正讓他聲名大噪的是一九八一年出版的第二部作品《午夜之子》，這部作品先是觸怒當時的印度總理，於印度遭禁，隨後榮獲布克獎、布萊克紀念小說獎，為他奠定國際文壇一席之地，也樹立了無畏強權、直言不諱的文學典範。在布克獎二十五週年及四十週年時，《午夜之子》分別再次獲選「特別布克獎」、「最佳布克獎」，成為唯一一部三度獲得布克獎的作品。

一九八三年發表的《羞恥》獲布克獎決選、法國最佳外文書獎，接著因中傷巴基斯坦當時總統，在巴基斯坦遭禁，更為他招來誹謗罪的控訴。一九八七年，《魔鬼詩篇》因「侮辱伊斯蘭先知」的罪名而遭前伊朗領袖何梅尼勒令追殺，歷年來賞金不斷提高，各國《魔鬼詩篇》出版者或翻譯者中亦有多人遇刺身亡。當年甚至引發負責評審諾貝爾文學獎的瑞典文學院院士憤而辭職的騷動。

魯西迪後又數次經歷禁書和強權恐嚇的風波，卻依舊不改作風，至今仍被視為世界文壇捍衛言論自由與宗教思辨自由的代表鬥士。他在《時代》雜誌票選「一九四五年後英國作家前五十名」中名列第十三。二○○七年由英國女皇伊莉莎白二世冊封爵士，現為英國皇家文學學會會士。其他重要著作有《摩爾人的最後嘆息》、《哈倫與故事之海》、《盧卡與生命之火》等。

在《兩年八個月又二十八夜》中，魯西迪書寫他「精神上的先祖」伊本‧魯希德，流暢融合《一千零一夜》及古印度寓言等素材，以時而謹慎、時而狂放的筆觸，寫出這部他自認「最有趣的作品」。暌違多年的長篇問世後，文壇與書迷都驚豔不已，不僅成為《紐約時報》暢銷排行榜好書，也獲選當年《華盛頓郵報》、《洛杉磯時報》、《舊金山紀事報》、《衛報》等各大媒體年度好書。對於本書，魯西迪自道：「這部作品的原始素材來自成千上萬陪伴我長大，並讓我愛上閱讀的各種故事。我認為這就是我背負一生的文學行李，而我現在要卸下這包行李，瞧瞧我打開行李讓裡面的故事竄進這個時空時，會發生什麼事。」