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To Paradise
布克獎入圍作家 Hanya Yanagihara 柳原漢雅 最新作品
跨越時空的故事，微妙的音符與家庭、朋友、戀人們互相影響著，交織成一首迷人的交響樂。
1893年，同性婚合法的紐約；柔弱世家子弟大衛對平凡的音樂教師有好感，拒絕祖父安排的結婚對象查爾斯。
1993年，失去政權的夏威夷王族後裔大衛與年長許多的富有律師查爾斯在紐約同居。
2093年，疫情侵擾、極權統治下的紐約，查莉的祖父遭羅織罪名處決，身有殘疾的她只好獨自面對丈夫的失蹤。
財富與貧窮、強者與弱者、種族與國家的對立、在權位者與革命者的正義衝突…，穿越三個世紀的故事篇章，磅礡衝擊著讀者的情感。
In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him – and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.
These three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can’t exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness.
To Paradise is a fin-de-siecle novel of marvellous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love – partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens – and the pain that ensues when we cannot.
