爱达荷州 2019

shiyi18

Idaho
Author: Emily Ruskovich
2019 Winner
Citation
At the heart of Emily Ruskovich’s haunting debut novel is the inexplicable. A young couple, Jenny and Wade, move from the prairies to the utter loneliness and unexpected isolation of the Northern Idaho mountains where they carelessly bought a piece of wooded land on a steep mountainside. As yet, they know nothing about the winter that will entrap them:  masses of snow, no plow, no neighbours, the next settlement eight miles away. This is not an idyll. Years go by. They build a house with their own hands; two children are born – May and June. Then, all of a sudden, in a brutal flash, with no warning, their happiness and their love are destroyed forever. Idaho is no thriller, though, that gradually uncovers the psychological abysses that would explain the inexplicable. The deed remains the deed, and the murderous evil of it stays ambivalent and mysterious to the end.

Ruskovich’s masterful achievement is to narrate with consummate skill the complex series of events covering a time-span of more than fifty years. The plot unfolds achronologically following multiple subjective perspectives. The narrative is thoroughly experimental, but  this neither impedes the flow of reading, nor does it diminish its utter suspense. Unresolved contrasts prevail: the vastness of the landscape is faced with terrifying images of confinement caused by remorseless nature and a prison cell. Empathy and love stand next to cruelty and crime. Individual guilt, trauma and pain are looming as large as eventual forgiveness and the ability to live in half-knowledge. Ultimately, Idaho evolves into a masterpiece on the redeeming and regenerative potential of music, poetry, literature and art.

About the book
One hot August day a family drives to a mountain clearing to collect birch wood. Jenny the mother, is in charge of lopping any small limbs off the logs with a hatchet. Wade the father, does the stacking. The two daughters June and May, aged nine and six, drink lemonade, swat away horseflies, bicker, sing snatches of songs as they while away the time. But then something unimaginably shocking happens, an act so extreme it will scatter the family in every different direction.

About the author
Emily Ruskovich grew up in the Idaho Panhandle, on Hoodoo mountain. Her fiction has appeared in Zoetrope, One Story and the Virginia Quarterly Review. A winner of a 2015 O. Henry Award and a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she now teaches creative writing at the University of Colorado, Denver. Idaho is her first novel.

(from publisher)

Librarian’s comments
This special debut novel is a real gem because of the atmosphere as well as the special structure of the novel. Ann Mitchell and her husband Wade live on a woody mountain in Idaho. We know from the beginning that the ex-wife is in prison and the two daughters are dead or missing. It’s difficult to unravel the mystery because Wade suffers from a kind of dementia. What had happened and why? Emily Ruskovich leaves bread crumbs by means of different stories. It’s nice to zig zag through time in a world of multiple truths. Toward the end the stories become shorter and supported by the long descriptions of the lonely, sinister and misty landscape.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Author       
Emily Ruskovich

Country       
US

Nominating Library       
Belgium, Openbare Bibliotheek Brugge

Publisher       
Chatto & Windus, UK

LIBRARIES IRELAND - FIND THIS BOOK
Categories: 2019, 2019, 2019 Shortlist
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爱达荷州
作者。艾米丽-罗斯科维奇
2019年获奖者
推荐理由
在艾米莉-罗斯科维奇令人不安的首部小说中，核心是莫名其妙。一对年轻夫妇，珍妮和韦德，从大草原搬到了爱达荷州北部山区，在那里他们不经意地买下了一块位于陡峭山坡上的林地，完全是一种孤独和意外的隔绝。他们对即将到来的冬天一无所知：大雪纷飞，没有犁，没有邻居，下一个定居点在8英里之外。这不是一个田园诗。几年过去了。他们用自己的双手建造了一座房子；两个孩子出生了--五月和六月。然后，突然间，在没有任何警告的情况下，他们的幸福和爱情被永远摧毁了。不过，《爱达荷》并不是一部惊悚片，它逐渐揭开了心理的深渊，解释了无法解释的事情。行为仍然是行为，其谋杀性的邪恶到最后都是矛盾和神秘的。

罗斯科维奇的杰出成就是以完美的技巧叙述了涵盖50多年时间跨度的一系列复杂事件。情节按照多个主观视角以隐约的方式展开。叙述是彻底的实验性的，但这既不妨碍阅读的流畅性，也不减少其完全的悬念。未解决的对比普遍存在：辽阔的风景与无情的自然和牢房造成的可怕的禁锢形象相映成趣。同情和爱与残忍和犯罪并存。个人的内疚、创伤和痛苦与最终的宽恕和在半知半解中生活的能力一样隐约可见。最终，《爱达荷》演变成一部关于音乐、诗歌、文学和艺术的救赎和再生潜力的杰作。

关于这本书
一个炎热的八月天，一个家庭开车到山上的空地上收集白桦木。母亲珍妮负责用斧头砍掉原木上的任何小枝条。父亲韦德则负责堆放。两个女儿June和May，分别为9岁和6岁，喝着柠檬水，拍打着马蝇，争吵着，在消磨时间时唱着小曲。但随后发生了令人震惊的事情，一个极端的行为将使这个家庭分散到各个不同的方向。

关于作者
艾米丽-罗斯科维奇在爱达荷州潘汉德尔地区的胡杜山长大。她的小说曾发表在《Zoetrope》、《One Story》和《弗吉尼亚季刊》上。她是2015年欧-亨利奖的得主，毕业于爱荷华作家工作室，现在在科罗拉多大学丹佛分校教授创意写作。爱达荷》是她的第一部小说。

(来自出版商)

图书管理员的评论
这部特殊的首部小说是真正的精品，因为小说的气氛以及特殊的结构。安-米切尔和她的丈夫韦德住在爱达荷州的一座林中山上。我们从一开始就知道，前妻在监狱里，两个女儿已经死亡或失踪。因为韦德患有一种痴呆症，所以很难解开这个谜团。发生了什么，为什么？艾米莉-罗斯科维奇通过不同的故事留下了面包屑。在一个具有多重真相的世界里，以之字形穿越时间，这很好。在接近尾声时，故事变得更短，并由对孤独、险恶和缥缈的风景的长篇描述来支持。

其他信息
作者       
艾米丽-罗斯科维奇

国家       
美国

提名图书馆       
比利时布鲁日开放图书馆(Openbare Bibliotheek Brugge)

出版商       
英国Chatto & Windus出版社

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分类: 2019年, 2019年, 2019年入围名单
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