The Nickel Boys | 誠品線上

The Nickel Boys

內容簡介

內容簡介 普立茲獎與美國國家圖書獎雙料得主《地下鐵路》(Underground Railroad)作者Colson Whitehead最新力作。Whitehead根據史料，重塑美國種族隔離法之下的佛羅里達州少年感化院的黑暗史。 當公民運動蔓延至美國種族隔離法所限制的佛州州府塔拉赫希的黑人區時，ElwoodCurtis便將金恩博士的話記在心裡：他”跟其他人一樣地好”。雖然被父母拋棄，但是祖母還是將他扶養成循規蹈矩的老實孩子，即將進入當地的黑人學校念書。但是對一個成長於1960年代早期的種族隔離法之下的黑人男孩，一個無心的錯就足以摧毀他的未來。Elwood被判有罪，送交至名為”鎳幣學院”的感化院接受教育，這個感化院所聲稱的任務是：提供”體力的、心智的、與道德的訓練”，讓這些犯錯的男孩們在他們的管理下，成為”受人敬重且誠實的男人”。 事實上，鎳幣學院充斥的只有恐怖，那些敗德的學院職員鞭笞並性侵學員，腐敗的官員與當地人偷搶食物與物資，任何反抗的男孩可能就此消失。在如此惡劣的環境中，Elwood始終懷抱金恩博士擲地有聲的主張 – “即便將我們關進監牢，我們依舊愛你。”Elwood的朋友Turner覺得，他比天真還糟糕，因為世界如此扭曲，唯一存活的方式就是欺瞞與避免任何麻煩。 Elwood的理想與Turner懷疑主義之間的張力所導致的決定，在後世不斷的反響迴盪，男孩們在鎳幣學院所忍受的事物，也決定了他們的命運。In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men."In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.

作者介紹

作者介紹 Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, which in 2016 won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Award and was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, as well as The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and The Colossus of New York. He is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a recipient of the MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. He lives in New York City.

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