BBC评选出的21世纪最伟大的12部小说.

　　在这个开放喧嚣的世纪，最伟大的小说是什么?经过全面严格的评判，BBC文化的掌门人简·席亚巴塔莉(Jane Ciabattari)联系了几十名书评家，包括《纽约时报》书评栏目(The New York Times Book Review)书评家波若·赛加尔(Parul Sehgal),《时代周刊》(Time magazine)杂志的图书编辑列弗·格罗斯曼(Lev Grossman)，《华盛顿新闻报》(Newsday)的图书编辑汤姆·比尔(Tom Beer)，“书痴”(Bookslut)的创始人杰萨·克里斯平(Jessa Crispin), 《百万》(The Millions)的创始人C·马克斯·麦吉(C Max Magee),《书目杂志》(Booklist)的唐娜·西曼(Donna Seaman),《克柯斯书评》(Kirkus Reviews)的劳里·穆可尼克(Laurie Muchnick)，和其它的一些图书界人士。我们要求每人选出新世纪以来，已出版的、最好的英文小说。评论家们一共挑选出156部小说，经过投票，12部小说中选。

　　Jfrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002)杰弗里·尤金尼德斯《中性》12

　　"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974,” Eugenides writes in the opening lines of his novel. Middlesex bridged the gap between critical and commercial acclaim, as well, winning a Pulitzer and selling millions of copies.尤金尼德斯的这本书是如此开篇的——“我曾‘二世为人’。第一次出生时，我是个女娃，那是1960年1月底特律一个毫无烟雾的日子;而后1974年8月，在密西根州佩托斯基附近的产房中我又以小男孩的面貌降临于世。”《中性》这本赢得普利策奖又销量上亿的书，在评论界和商业上表现俱佳、名利双收。

　　Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000)查蒂·史密斯《白牙》11

　　As White Teeth unfolds, it is chockablock with vivid scenes and characters, a portrait of postcolonial multicultural London: "Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checks."当《白牙》将故事娓娓道来，书中生动的场景、鲜活的人物都跃然纸上，展现了后殖民时期多族裔混居的伦敦：“孩子们的名字就是文化碰撞的直接展示，隐含了大逃亡、拥挤的飞机船只、寒冷中抵达和医疗检查等意思。”

　　Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)奇玛曼达·恩戈齐·阿迪奇埃《半轮黄日》10

　　In her audacious and vividly imagined second novel, Adichie drew upon her ancestral past to write about the Biafra conflict, which traumatised her country and her family for three years after the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria seceded in 1967 (her grandfather died in a rugee camp during the war).《半轮黄日》是阿迪奇埃写的第二部小说，其中语言大胆、极具想象力、表现生动。阿迪奇埃追溯她祖先的过往，描写了尼日利亚内战(1967-1970年尼日利亚东部地区的伊博人实行分裂后爆发的战争，也叫比拉夫战争)。在那场长达3年的战争中，她的国家和家庭受到重创(其间，阿迪奇埃的外祖父在难民营中去世)。

　　注：Biafra：比拉夫现属尼日利亚的一部分，位于其东南角，居民多为伊博人(Igbo)。1967年比拉夫宣布独立，而后开始尼日利亚内战，直至1970年比拉夫重归尼日利亚，为这场战争拉上帷幕。有兴趣的同学可以搜这本书的同名电影看~

　　Ian McEwan, Atonement (2001)伊恩·麦克尤恩《赎罪》9

　　McEwan’s haunting and beautifully crafted novel opens on a summer day in 1935, when 13-year-old Briony shows her mother a play she’s written to perform with her three young cousins the next evening.麦克尤恩这本小说夺人心魄、文笔优美。故事始于1935年的一个夏日，13岁的布莱欧妮向她的母亲展示她创作的短剧，还准备第二天晚上和三个表姐一起表演。

　　"Briony was hardly to know it then, but this was the project's highest point of fulfillment," McEwan writes. "Nothing came near it for satisfaction, all else was dreams and frustration."That evening, Briony witnesses her 15-year-old cousin Lola being assaulted in the darkened woods. Her testimony implicates Robbie, her sister Cecilia's boyfriend from Cambridge and son of the family house maid, and he is jailed.麦克尤恩写到：“布里奥妮几乎不知道那已经是她剧本最成功的时刻了，其他的设想都只是些白日梦，不能为她带来任何满足，甚至会让她尝到沮丧的滋味。”那天晚上，布里奥妮亲眼目睹了自己15岁的表姐罗拉在黑暗的树丛中被强暴。她的证词暗示了她姐姐塞西莉亚来自剑桥的男友罗比——家中女仆的儿子——就是犯人，而后他便入狱了。

　　In a second section, McEwan gives a panoramic account of the harrowing evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, with Robbie among those saved. Realising she has ruined Cecilia and Robbie's lives, Briony works as a nurse during the Blitz in a third section. As McEwan follows these characters through six decades, Briony's search for redemption evolves into a meditation on the power of art.在书中第二部分，麦克尤恩用全景的方式描绘了1940年颓败的敦刻尔克大撤退，罗比是其中的幸存者。布里奥妮意识到自己毁了塞西莉亚和罗比的一生，她在书中的第三部分的闪电战期间成为了一名护士。麦克尤恩的《赎罪》跨越60年时间，一生忏悔的布里奥妮最后将情感注入笔下成就了艺术之魂。

　　注：强烈推荐本书改编电影《赎罪》(2007)，主演詹姆斯·麦卡沃伊(一美颜值满分!)、凯拉·奈特莉。同时还有本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇的酱油戏。

　　Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2012)本·方汀《比利·林恩漫长的中场休息》8

　　Eight rookies from the US army’s Bravo squad, fresh from a firight with Iraqi insurgents, are dubbed war heroes by the Fox News cable channel. Their two-week stateside victory tour ends with a halftime salute at a Dallas Cowboys game. Fountain gives us a memorable narrator in 19-year-old Billy Lynn, with his combination of lust,bedazzlement and post-traumatic stress disorder.在与伊拉克叛乱者的交火结束没多久，美国军队刺杀小组的八名新兵便被福克斯新闻频道标榜为战争英雄。他们在美国国内历时两周的胜利巡演，最终以达拉斯牛仔队橄榄球球赛的中场表演画上句号。方汀为我们呈现的是一位让人记忆犹新的讲述者，他是19岁的比利·林恩。与此同时，我们得以一窥比利的欲望、茫然困惑以及创伤后应激障碍(post-traumatic stress disorder，缩写PTSD)。

　　注：李安导演已经确定要将这本书拍成电影!该片的编剧西蒙·比弗尤还曾凭借《贫民窟的百万富翁》(Slumdog Millionaire)获过奥斯卡最佳改编剧本奖。Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010)珍妮弗·伊根《恶棍来访》7

　　“Time is the stealth goon, the one you ignore because you are so busy worrying about the goons right in front of you.” Egan says. Egan’s Proustian meditation on time, fame and music won the National Book Critics Circle and Pulitzer awards.伊根写道：“时间——是人们总是因为忙于寻找担忧眼前的‘恶棍’而忽略的‘隐藏恶棍’。”伊根对时间、名誉和音乐的普鲁斯特式思考成就了此书，使其荣膺美国国家书评人奖和普利策奖。

　　Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000)迈克尔·夏本《卡瓦利尔和克莱伊的神奇冒险》6

　　Booklist senior editor Donna Seaman notes this book is “a timeless inquiry into our tragic proclivity for hate and war, our abiding need for stories and our persistent longing for magical powers and transcendence.”这张书单的高级编辑唐娜·西曼称赞这本书“是作者超越时间界限发出的疑问——它向人类对于仇恨与战争悲剧性的倾向、渴望故事的长久需求以及不懈追求魔力和超越发问。”

　　Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections (2001)乔纳森·弗兰岑《纠正》5

　　This “astonishing third novel – a masterpiece of voice, character, and storytelling – is both epic and intimate.” Franzen’s edgy multigenerational family saga, winner of a US National Book Award, was among the first novels to capture the zeitgeist of the century’s first decade.“这本(弗兰岑)出人意料的第三本小说是一部杰作，书中人物的发言、所刻画的角色以及其讲故事的功力都无可挑剔。书既具有史诗般的恢弘又言语亲昵。”这部长篇小说获得了美国国家图书奖，展现了多世代家庭中紧张的关系，它也是捕捉到二十世纪第一个十年时代精神的先驱小说之一。

　　Marilynne Robinson, Gilead (2004)玛里琳·罗宾逊《基列家书》4

　　Critic Karen R Long says, “This multi-generational story inculcates a desire for transcendence, and makes a case for spiritual life in the 21st Century – its own kind of miracle. Gilead will be read in 100 years.”评论家凯伦·R·朗谈道：“这个故事横跨多代人，书中反复灌输的是人们对超越的渴望，还展现出21世纪的精神生活。它本身便是个奇迹。《基列家书》在未来的100年中仍会被人传阅。”

　　注：Gilead——基列，圣经里古巴勒斯坦的地名。

　　Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009)希拉里·曼特尔的《狼厅》3

　　Mantel’s boldly reimagined saga of 16th Century Europe is told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell (with Henry VIII as a supporting character). It has been filmed as a new BBC miniseries.希拉里的这部作品从托马斯·克伦威尔的视角大胆地对16世纪的欧洲进行重构，而亨利八世(则一反常态地)在书中扮演配角。这本长篇小说已经被拍成了BBC新系列短剧。

　　Edward P Jones, The Known World (2003)爱德华·A·琼斯《已知的世界》2

　　Set in 1855 on the plantation of Henry Townsend – born a slave, now a slave-owner – The Known World is a triumph of empathy, immersing readers in a complex moral time without making simple judgments. It also “takes an unflinching and engrossing view of America's messy history”.故事发生在1855年。经营种植园的亨利·汤森虽然现在是奴隶主，却有着奴隶出生。《已知的世界》给人的代入感很强，它成功让读者陷入一个复杂的道德处境，难以轻易做出判断。这本小说还“果敢地讲述了美国混乱的历史，引人入胜”。

　　Junot Díaz, The Bri Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007)胡诺特·迪亚斯《奥斯卡·瓦奥短暂而奇妙的一生》1

　　1. Junot Díaz, The Bri Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007)胡诺特·迪亚斯的《奥斯卡·瓦奥短暂而奇妙的一生》(2007年出版)

　　The winner in this BBC Culture critics’ poll is Junot Diaz’s first novel, about New Jersey ghetto-nerd Oscar, who dreams of being the Dominican-American Tolkien and finding love. Critic and author Rigoberto Gonzalez notes, “The work re-energised these questions: Who is American? What is the American experience?”胡诺特·迪亚斯的处女作位列于BBC文化档评论家投票的榜首。小说的主人公是新泽西贫民窟一个名叫奥斯卡的书呆子。他梦想着成为多米尼加裔美国版的托尔金(英国文豪，以严肃奇幻作品《霍比特人》、《魔戒》闻名)并找到真爱。评论家兼作家里戈韦托·冈萨雷斯评论道：“这部作品让人们不禁要重新思索：怎样定义美国人?美国经历又是什么?”