The Splendid and the Vile

这不是一本关于丘吉尔如何运筹帷幄、决胜千里的英雄史诗，而是一部把“首相”从神坛拉回人间的纪实。埃里克·拉森刻意聚焦1940年5月至1941年5月那段最黑暗的日子：敦刻尔克的溃退、伦敦大轰炸下四万英国平民的死亡、以及丘吉尔如何在罗斯福面前不卑不亢地“求援”。书中最耐人寻味的，恰是那些与宏大叙事格格不入的细节——他在德机步步紧逼时仍雷打不动地率亲友去郊外别墅度周末、超支办宴会，女儿的天真、儿子的赌债、儿媳的情感变故，都被如实写进字里行间。它真正打动人的地方，是“一边在轰炸，一边在跳舞”背后那种英国式的坚韧：我们全部的努力，只是为了保住再平凡不过的日常生活。适合对权力运作与人性幽微同时感兴趣的读者，而非只想读一段人尽皆知的胜利史的人。

Erik Larson’s latest work of narrative nonfiction is DEAD WAKE: THE LAST CROSSING OF THE LUSITANIA, which became an immediate New York Times bestseller. His saga of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing, and lingered on various NYT best-seller lists for the better part of a decade. Hulu plans to adapt the book for a limited TV series, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese as executive producers. Erik’s IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS, about America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter, has been optioned by Tom Hanks for development as a feature film. His next book, THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: A SAGA OF CHURCHILL, FAMILY, AND DEFIANCE DURING THE BLITZ, due out in early spring 2020, is a story of geopolitical brinksmanship during Churchill’s first year as prime minister, but also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country house, Chequers, and his “full-moon home,” Ditchley, where Churchill, his family, and his “Secret Circle” convene when the moon is in its brightest phases and the bombing threat is highest. Erik is a former features writer for The Wall Street Journal and Time. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and other publications. He has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, the University of Oregon, and the Chuckanut Writers Conference, and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. A former resident of Seattle, he now lives in Manhattan with his wife, a neonatologist and author of the nonfiction memoir, ALMOST HOME, which, as Erik puts it, "could make a stone cry." They have three daughters in far-flung locations and professions.