★2016 年 Man Booker Prize 決選名單★2016 年 Paris Review Plimpton Prize for Fiction 得主David Szalay 以高度寫實卻不動聲色的筆法，描繪當代歐洲男性的精神風景。本書由九個看似獨立的故事構成，主角皆為身處異地的男性，他們在生命的不同階段——從青春到老年——試圖理解「活在此時此地」究竟意味著什麼。場景橫跨布拉格郊區、阿爾卑斯山村、比利時高速公路旁與塞浦路斯的廉價旅館，每一處都映照出流動世界中的孤獨與失衡。隨著篇章推進，主角年齡逐漸增長，氣候轉冷，情緒也愈發收縮。這些故事在細節中彼此呼應，最終拼湊出一幅完整的人生輪廓，既探問現代男性氣概的困境，也揭示全球化歐洲底下的階級差距、慾望與失落。本書風格冷冽而精準，時而陰暗不安，時而帶著近乎殘酷的幽默感，展現作者對心理狀態的深刻洞察。這是一部結構精巧、力量逐步累積的小說，也是一種嶄新的現實主義嘗試。* Finalist for the 2016 Man Booker Prize ** Winner of the 2016 Paris Review Plimpton Prize for Fiction * A magnificent and ambitiously conceived portrait of contemporary life, by a genius of realismNine men. Each of them at a different stage in life, each of them away from home, and each of them striving--in the suburbs of Prague, in an overdeveloped Alpine village, beside a Belgian motorway, in a dingy Cyprus hotel--to understand what it means to be alive, here and now. Tracing a dramatic arc from the spring of youth to the winter of old age, the ostensibly separate narratives of
