书籍介绍
A riveting, kaleidoscopic debut novel and the beginning of a major career: a novel about race, history, ancestry, love, and time that traces the descendants of two sisters torn apart in eighteenth-century Africa across three hundred years in Ghana and America.
Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and will live in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising children who will be sent abroad to be educated before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the empire. Esi, imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle's women's dungeon and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, will be sold into slavery. Stretching from the wars of Ghana to slavery and the Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the American South to the Great Migration to twentieth-century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi's novel moves through histories and geographies and captures--with outstanding economy and force-- the troubled spirit of our own nation. She has written a modern masterpiece.
AI导读
核心看点
- 双女主视角，追溯三百年的家族史
- 平行叙事，展现非洲与美国命运
- 深刻探讨种族、历史与身份认同
适合谁读
- 对非洲历史与黑奴题材感兴趣的读者
- 喜欢家族史诗与多代叙事结构的读者
- 关注种族议题与社会历史反思的读者
读前提醒
- 人物众多，建议理清两姐妹后代脉络
- 篇幅紧凑，每章聚焦一代人的命运
- 部分章节可能略显脸谱化，需耐心
读者共识
- 叙事结构极具创意，跨越时空宏大
- 文字细腻动人，触及灵魂深处
- 部分读者认为后期略显乏味或脸谱化
本导读基于书籍简介、目录、原文摘录、短评和书评生成，不等同于全文精读。
精彩摘录
- "“我们无法回去，不是吗？” 她停下脚步，碰了碰他的手臂。这时候她的神情比整个晚上都更为严肃，仿佛她这才意识到他是个活生生的人，而不是当他发现她在熟睡之时，她所梦见的某个人。“ 我们无法返回某个我们从一开始就不曾涉足过的地方。那里已不再属于我们。这里才是。” 她一只手从身前划过，似乎想将整个哈莱姆，整个纽约，整个美国都揽入怀中。"
- "你不是你母亲生下的第一个女儿。你还有个姐姐。在我的村子里，有这样一句俗语：分离的姐妹就像是一个女人和她的倒影，注定要待在池水的两边。"
- "Hell was a place of remembering, each beautiful moment passed through the mind's eye until it fell to the ground like a rotten mango, perfectly useless, uselessly perfect."
- "Weakness if treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is konwing that everyone belongs to themselves."
- "We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there"
- "But for Yaw that was different. At the front of the classroom he was not himself. He was a performer in the tradition of village dancers and storytellers. At home, he was who he really was. Shy and lonely, angry and embarrassed. He did not want anyone to see him there."
- "“这就是历史的问题所在。既然没有在现场眼见、耳听和经历过，我们就不能知道真相。我们只能依赖其他人的说法。那些在过去亲历过的人，他们把故事讲给子女听，这样子女就会知晓，再将故事讲给他们自己的子女听。子又传孙，孙又传子。不过现在，我们的问题是故事互相冲突。柯乔·尼阿克说，当士兵来到他的村庄时，他们穿的是红军装；可夸梅·艾杜说他们穿的是蓝军装。那么我们该相信谁的故事呢？ ……我们相信有权势的人。他才是故事的书写者。所以，当你们学习历史的时候，必须时时自问，我错失了谁的故事？现在的故事能流传下来，是压制了谁的声音的结果？一旦弄清楚了这一点，你也就一定能找到被压下的那个故事。从那一步起，虽然仍不完整，你"
- "埃非亚当然知道，地牢中关的有人。那些与她操不同方言的人，那些在部落战争中被俘虏的人，甚至还有被抢来的人，她之前从不曾思考过他们来自何处。她之前从未思考过，詹姆斯每次看到他们时都在想些什么。他走进地牢的时候，会不会看到让他能想起她的女人，看到长得像她、闻起来像她的女人。他回到她身边的时候，会不会对看到的情景感到困惑。"
作者简介
YAA GYASI was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and lives in Berkeley, California.
用户评论
不太推荐在阴郁天气的Auckland拿来听-需要个大晴天
这是一本横跨几百年，讲述家族六代人的历史小说。全书共有两条平行线，一条在非洲，一条在美国，而其中的每个故事哪怕分别作为短篇小说来读也毫不逊色。虽然篇幅有限又是作者的处女座，因此像很多人说的匠气略重，但始终瑕不掩瑜，至少在我读过的数量有限的非洲文学作品中，这部实属上乘之作。
我读过的黑奴历史题材小说中最好的一本
speechless。历史小说还可以这么写。每个人物都是一个小故事，但是连串得非常细腻。文字也触及心灵。
TM ❶非黑即白-在Effia的村子裡，Everything bore the weight of everything else. ❷Maame：Weakness是對待他人像屬於你的，Strength是知道每個人屬於自己；❸這些人不是自然的孩子（these people do not come from nature）；❹姐妹的孩子比自己的更重要。❺他們的生活方式：Eat or be eaten. Marry for protection. ❺人們經常看見她望著大海，好像要跳進去，試圖找到回家的路。
历史纪实意义远大于文学性
今年读的书2: 看到评论说非洲百年孤独 我还挺同意的 有感觉透过了tiktok上吵吵闹闹的平权 看到了minority几百年起起落落的历史的沧桑
A beautiful book that left me speechless and heartbreaking, but at the same time, calmed me and found me a safe place.
对我来说还是educational了
无论是离开还是留下的，每一代人的痛苦和挣扎都充满了血泪，而这些痛苦和挣扎是作者通过what is left unsaid写出来的。
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