2018年--太阳的骨头

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2018 – Solar Bones
Author: Mike McCormack
Winner of the 2018 Award
The Judges’ Citation
Formally ambitious, stylistically dauntless and linguistically spirited, Solar Bones is a novel of extraordinary assurance and scope. That its protagonist, Marcus Conway, is dead we know from the back cover blurb: the novel’s task is, through the miracle of language, to bring him back to life. And so it does, bringing him back to his life, a life experienced as both ordinary (in its daily routines) and extraordinary (in its probing of what it means to be alive).

Marcus Conway is a complex and challenging hero: a flawed, bullish and impatient protagonist, but a compelling character nonetheless who engineers his private and public selves into a finely-tuned consciousness that animates and underwrites every episode of this remembered life. Marcus’ memory is exhaustive, ranging between the various circumstances of his family and work lives. The novel is episodic and what runs under each episode is a current of intense feeling and keenly-honed attention.

In this probing of what it means to play out the various roles of husband, father, son, brother, colleague and neighbour, Solar Bones offers a sharp, acerbic and often very funny response to contemporary Irish masculinity. Its account of the relationship between Marcus and Mairead is a particularly piercing and affecting portrayal of contemporary marriage, with its necessary inter-webbings and defended privacies; its desires, losses and rewards.

By times sharp and critical; by others, surprisingly tender and alert, Marcus’s narrative voice collates a lifetime’s worth of experience into an account that neither glamourises its consolations, nor reneges upon its failings and shortcomings.

The novel’s seamless structure gives it a beautifully fluid pace. An extremely enjoyable read, it is also poignant, moving and evocative. Although firmly committed to its particular Mayo setting, this is a novel of universal appeal: if you know Ireland, you will recognise this world; but if you don’t, you will still recognise Marcus Conway, a rich and (literally!) haunting character who brings a whole world to life.

About the book
Once a year, on All Souls’ Day, it is said in Ireland that the dead may return. Solar Bones is the story of one such visit. Marcus Conway, a middle-aged engineer, turns up one afternoon at his kitchen table and considers the events that took him away and then brought him home again. Funny and strange, McCormack’s ambitious and other-worldly novel plays with form and defies convention. This profound new work is by one of Ireland’s most important contemporary novelists. A beautiful and haunting elegy, this story of order and chaos, love and loss captures how minor decisions ripple into waves and test our integrity every day.

About the author
Mike McCormack is an award-winning novelist and short story writer from Mayo. His previous work includes Getting it in the Head (1995), Crowe’s Requiem (1998), Notes from a Coma (2005), which was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award, and Forensic Songs (2012). In 1996 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and in 2007 he was awarded a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship. In 2016 he won the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award for best novel for Solar Bones. The novel was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, and in March 2017 it was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel Award. He lives in Galway. (from publisher)

Librarians’ comments
This is such a unique and unusual book that we feel the author deserves recognition. The novel is written in a single sentence which could have felt like a literary gimmick but instead comes across as really accomplished storytelling. In addition to his distinctive technique McCormack also brilliantly describes the area in which the book is set, making it a powerful element in the book.

A library staff pick for this readable, experimental novel set in and described as a hymn to small town Ireland.

The 2018 Judging Panel
The 2018 Judging Panel includes Vona Groarke, Xiaolu Guo, Nicky Harman, Dr Mpalive-Hangson Msiska, Courttia Newland  and non-voting Chair Hon. Eugene R. Sullivan.

Watch Mike McCormack’s Acceptance Speech, 13th June 2018
Press release
Photographs
2018 Longlist
2018 Shortlist
Nominating Libraries
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION



2018年--太阳的骨头
作者。麦克-麦科马克
2018年的获奖者
评委们的评语
太阳之骨》是一部形式上雄心勃勃、风格上无畏、语言上充满活力的小说，具有非凡的保证和范围。小说的主人公马库斯-康威已经死了，这一点我们从封底的简介中可以看出：小说的任务是通过语言的奇迹使他复活。因此，它确实把他带回了自己的生活，一个既普通（在其日常生活中）又不平凡（在其对活着的意义的探究中）的生活经历。

马库斯-康威是一个复杂的、具有挑战性的英雄：一个有缺陷的、牛逼的、不耐烦的主人公，但仍然是一个引人注目的人物，他将他的私人和公共自我设计成一个精细调整的意识，使这个记忆中的生活的每一个情节都有活力和底蕴。马库斯的记忆是详尽的，包括他的家庭和工作生活的各种情况。小说是情节性的，每一个情节下都有一股强烈的感情和敏锐的关注。

在对扮演丈夫、父亲、儿子、兄弟、同事和邻居等各种角色的探究中，《太阳之骨》对当代爱尔兰的男子气概做出了尖锐的、尖刻的、经常是非常有趣的反应。它对Marcus和Mairead之间关系的描述是对当代婚姻的特别刺耳和有影响的描写，它有必要的相互联系和捍卫的隐私；它的欲望、损失和回报。

马库斯的叙述时而尖锐、批判，时而出人意料地温柔、警觉，他将一生的经验整理成一个既不美化其安慰，也不背弃其失败和缺点的叙述。

小说的无缝结构使其具有优美流畅的节奏。这是一本极其令人愉快的读物，同时也是一部凄美、感人和令人回味的作品。虽然坚定地致力于其特定的梅奥背景，但这是一部具有普遍吸引力的小说：如果你了解爱尔兰，你会认识这个世界；但如果你不了解，你仍然会认识马库斯-康威，一个丰富和（字面意思！）令人神魂颠倒的人物，他使整个世界变得生动。

关于这本书
每年一度的万灵节，在爱尔兰，人们说死者可能会回来。太阳之骨》讲述的就是这样一个故事。马库斯-康威（Marcus Conway）是一名中年工程师，一天下午他出现在自己的厨房桌前，思考那些把他带走又把他带回来的事件。有趣而奇怪，麦科马克雄心勃勃的另一个世界的小说玩弄着形式，蔑视传统。这部深刻的新作是爱尔兰当代最重要的小说家之一的作品。这部关于秩序与混乱、爱与失落的故事是一首美丽而又令人神伤的挽歌，它捕捉到了微小的决定是如何激起波澜，考验我们每天的诚信。

关于作者
麦克-麦科马克是来自梅奥的获奖小说家和短篇小说家。他以前的作品包括《脑子里的东西》（Getting it in the Head，1995）、《克罗的安魂曲》（Crowe's Requiem，1998）、入围爱尔兰年度图书奖的《昏迷笔记》（Notes from a Coma，2005）和《法证之歌》（Forensic Songs，2012）。1996年，他被授予爱尔兰文学鲁尼奖，2007年，他被授予西维塔拉-拉涅利奖学金。2016年，他凭借《太阳之骨》获得了金匠奖和Bord Gáis能源爱尔兰图书奖的最佳小说奖。这部小说入围了意识共和国奖的长名单，并在2017年3月入围凯里集团爱尔兰小说奖。他住在戈尔韦。 (来自出版商)

图书管理员的评论
这是一本如此独特和不寻常的书，我们觉得作者应该得到认可。小说是用一句话写成的，这本来会让人觉得是一种文学噱头，但却让人觉得是真正有成就的讲故事。除了他独特的技巧外，麦科马克还出色地描述了该书所处的地区，使之成为书中的一个有力元素。

图书馆工作人员挑选了这本可读的实验性小说，其背景是爱尔兰小镇，并被描述为对小镇的赞美诗。

2018年评审小组
2018年评审团成员包括沃纳-格罗克、郭晓璐、尼基-哈曼、姆帕里夫-汉森-姆西斯卡博士、考蒂亚-纽兰和无投票权的主席尤金-R-苏利文阁下。

观看麦克-麦科马克的接受演讲，2018年6月13日
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