【雲圖召喚一種世界,在眾多故事裡穿梭迴盪】 無論穿越多少時空,我們永遠能找到彼此 在南太平洋,一段不幸被熱帶寄生蟲啃蝕大腦的船客敘述自己的冒險歷程;另一端發生在近代比利時,年輕作曲家攀附在知名音樂大師的麾下度日,卻意外陷入帶有哥德式莊園風格的不倫戀情故事;而在美國加州,一個想揭發建商弊案的女性八卦專欄記者,卻遭遇一連串驚悚駭人的追殺;時間來到當代英國,好不容易出版了一本暢銷書,卻開始被黑道追殺的出版商;又未來世界的韓國餐館,一位相信努力工作就可以前往天堂的複製人女孩,開始思考自己的存在價值;以及核子末日後,突然成為人類最後文明的小島牧羊男孩的奇遇…… 從1850年跨越到後末日時期的未來,由六個看似毫無關聯卻又緊密聯繫的故事構成。 包括1849年的南太平洋、1936年的蘇格蘭、1973年的美國、2012年的英國、2144年的新韓國及2321年至2346年未來人類文明重生的夏威夷。 故事天馬行空,相同的靈魂化身不同的角色及經歷,影響後世人及自己轉世的靈魂個體。 這六段故事在小說裡交替,時間跨越千年,地點發生在世界各地,雖看似迥異,但六個故事的主角似乎能聽見彼此在不同時空的跫音,進而改變且影響各自的命運。 曾被改編為同名電影《雲圖》,一部結合西方哲理與東方輪迴轉世的作品,受到Italo Calvino卡爾維諾《If on A Winter\'s Night A Traveller 如果在冬夜,一個旅人》的故事裁體啟發,獨特的敘事方法和故事進行模式突破以往對小說的想像,每個故事既可獨立閱讀,也可相容成為一個完整且互相關聯的故事。David Mitchell是一位愛爾蘭作家,曾在日本任教於大學,因此寫作風格同時受到東西方作家的影響,發展出其獨特又迷人的作品魅力。 A postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in twenty-first-century fiction, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending, philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profound as it is playful. In this groundbreaking novel, an influential favorite among a new generation of writers, Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity. Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . . Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon. ISBN 9780812984415 書號 20163310