篇幅虽短但令人爱不释手的8本小说

《都柏林人》 Dubliners

 

A collection of short stories by James Joyce, about the life of Irish middle class at the beginning of the 20th century. The stories share a common narrative¹ element, epiphany, where characters experience a life-changing illumination or a moment of truth.

本书是詹姆斯·乔伊斯的短篇小说集，讲述了20世纪初爱尔兰中产阶级的生活。小说中的故事都有一个共同的叙事元素——顿悟，每个故事中的人物都会经历改变人生的瞬间或得知真相的时刻。

 

There are fifteen stories in the collection, ordered chronologically². We begin with stories of youth in "The Sisters". Next stories deal with the lives of progressively older people to culminate³ in "The Dead".

这本小说集由15个故事组成，按时间顺序逐渐展开。我们从《姐妹们》中年轻人的故事开始，一步步走向日渐成熟的人生，最终以《死者》的故事收尾。

 

《时间的皱纹》 A Wrinkle in Time

 

Meg's father, a scientist who was studying tesseracts (wrinkles in time) for the government, has been missing for over a year. On a blustery night, a celestial⁴ stranger appears in her home and beckons⁵ Meg, her younger brother Charles Wallace, and their friend, Calvin, on an adventure through time and space that could lead them to Meg's missing dad.

梅格的父亲是一位为政府研究四度空间（时间的皱纹）的科学家，已经失踪一年多了。在一个狂风大作的夜晚，一位天外来客突然出现在梅格家中，并邀请梅格、弟弟查尔斯·华莱士和他们的朋友加尔文踏上了寻找失踪父亲的穿越时空的冒险。

 

This mission is fraught⁶ with danger, however, and puts their lives — and the very universe — in peril⁷. This Newbery Medal-winning novel is a quick read unlike any other, brimming with excitement and originality⁸.

然而这次冒险危机重重，将他们的生命甚至整个宇宙都置于危险之中。这本获得纽伯瑞奖的短篇小说读起来与众不同，充满了兴奋感和创造力。

 

《湮灭》 Annihilation

 

What is happening at Area X? The 12th expedition has been sent to explore this mysterious place, but their odds⁹ don't look promising¹⁰. While the first team of explorers called the land heavenly, every subsequent party has suffered horribly.

X区发生了什么？第12支探险队被派去探索这个神秘的地方，但她们成功的可能性看起来并不大。自第一支探险队把这片区域称为天国之后，后面的每一支队伍都遭受了可怕的打击。

 

Members of one expedition took their own lives; those of the next group shot and killed one another; and all members of the most recent team died of cancer. The newest expedition is made up of four women who have been asked to observe the landscape — and one another. And what they encounter is the last thing they expect.

一支探险队的队员结束了自己的生命，另一组队员则互相开枪打死了对方，而最近一批探险队员全部死于癌症……第12支探险队由四名女队员组成，她们被命令去勘探环境并互相监视。最终，她们遇到了最不希望发生的事。

 

《珍珠》 The Pearl

 

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering¹¹ pearls from the gulf¹² beds that once brought great wealth to the kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager¹³ subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull's egg, as "perfect as the moon". With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security…

如父亲和祖父一样，基诺是一个贫穷的潜水员，每天从海床上采集珍珠。这些珍珠曾为西班牙国王带来巨大的财富，现在则为基诺、胡安娜和他们年幼的儿子提供微薄的生活来源。后来，在一个平凡如常的日子，基诺从海里带出了一颗像海鸥蛋一样大的珍珠，它“像月亮一样完美”。珍珠带来了希望，也预示着舒适和安稳……

 

A story of classic simplicity¹⁴, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man's nature, greed, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous¹⁵ possibilities of love.

这是一个简单却经典的故事，改编自墨西哥民间传说。《珍珠》探索了人性的奥秘——贪婪，最黑暗的邪恶深处，以及闪耀的爱的可能。

 

《觉醒》 The Awakening¹⁶

 

The Awakening was Kate Chopin's second and final novel, published in 1899. It was one of the first novels that focused on women, marking the birth of feminism in America. We follow Edna Pontellier, an obedient wife and mother, who becomes close to a charming young man Robert Lebrun. It's the time when she begins to struggle for her independence and self-fulfillment.

《觉醒》出版于1899年，它是凯特·肖邦的第二部也是最后一部小说。它是最早关注女性的小说之一，标志着女权主义在美国的诞生。我们跟随一位顺从的妻子和母亲——埃德娜·庞特勒尔的脚步，渐渐走近一位迷人的年轻男子罗伯特·勒布朗。这是她开始为自己的独立和自我实现而斗争的时候了。

 

At the time of first publication the book met with mixed reactions, mainly due to presenting attitudes that were against established gender¹⁷ roles.

在首次出版时，这本书因展现了反对既定性别角色的态度而收到了各种不同的反响。

 

《第五个孩子》 The Fifth Child

 

This is a classic tale from Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Published in 1988, the book describes the changes in the happy life of Harriet and David Lovatt, as a result of the birth of their fifth child, Ben.

这是诺贝尔文学奖得主多丽丝·莱辛的一个经典故事。该书出版于1988年，讲述了由于第五个孩子本的出生，哈里特和大卫·洛瓦特一家的幸福生活发生的变化。

 

Ben is a highly dysfunctional child, large, ugly, and uncontrollable. His birth marks the beginning of the misery¹⁸ and suffering for the entire family.

本是个畸形儿，高大丑陋且难以管束。他的出生标志着整个家庭苦难的开始。

 

《你在天堂里遇见的五个人》 The Five People You Meet in Heaven

 

Eddie, a war veteran who spends his days repairing amusement park rides, is less than thrilled with his seemingly pointless existence. On his 83rd birthday, he sacrifices his own life to save a girl from a falling cart. In the hereafter, he discovers that heaven is a place where your life is explained to you by five people — people who changed your life's path in significant ways.

埃迪是一名退伍老兵，每天都在修理游乐园里的各种设施。他觉得自己的存在毫无价值，过得非常苦闷。在83岁生日那天，他为了把一个小女孩从坠落的游乐车上救下来而丧生。死后，埃迪发现天堂里会有五个人为你阐明你生命的意义，这些人曾在很大程度上改变了你的人生道路。

 

In a truly original fashion, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven offers a fresh perspective on the meaning of life. Don't be fooled by this book's diminutive¹⁹ size: it packs a huge wallop.

米奇·阿尔博姆的《你在天堂里遇见的五个人》以一种独创的方式，为你提供了一个关于生命意义的全新视角。别因为篇幅短小就被这本书骗了：它可威力无穷。

 

《赌徒》 The Gambler

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Gambler is the tale of Alexy, a tutor who works for a Russian General and his family. He falls in love with the General's niece, Polina — a manipulative young woman who pulls his strings²⁰ like a master puppeteer²¹.

费奥多尔·陀思妥耶夫斯基的《赌徒》讲述了一位在俄罗斯将军家工作的家庭教师阿列克谢的故事。他爱上了将军的侄女波琳娜——一个控制欲极强的年轻女子，她总像操纵木偶的大师一样操纵着他。

 

A hopeless gambler whose passion for the game greatly exceeds his ability to win, Alexy finds himself spiralling out of control. The General's family, in the meantime, sits on the precipice²² of financial ruin, desperately²³ awaiting the death of their wealthy matriarch. If you'd like to add a Russian classic to your book challenge, but don't want to embark²⁴ on the weightiness of Anna Karenina or War and Peace, this is the perfect choice for you.

作为一个绝望的赌徒，阿列克谢参赌的热情远超他能赢的能力，他发现自己迅速失控了。与此同时，将军家也处于破产边缘，绝望地等待着富有的女主人的死亡。如果你想挑战俄罗斯文学经典，又不想从厚重的《安娜·卡列尼娜》或《战争与和平》开始，这本书绝对是你最好的选择。

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