An intimate and revelatory eyewitness account of two generations of students in China’s heartland, chronicling a country in the midst of tumultuous change through the prism of its education system
More than twenty years after teaching English to China’s first boom generation at a small college in Sichuan Province, Peter Hessler returned to Sichuan to teach the next generation. At the same time, Hessler and his wife enrolled their twin daughters in a local state-run elementary school, where they were the only Westerners in a student body of about two thousand. Over the years, Hessler had kept in close contact with more than a hundred of his former students, who were now in their forties. By reconnecting with these individuals—members of China’s “Reform generation” —while teaching current undergrads, Hessler was able to gain a unique perspective on China's incredible transformation over the past quarter-century.
In the late 1990s, almost all of Hessler's students were the first member of their extended families to become educated. Their parents were subsistence farmers who could offer little guidance as their children entered a brand-new world. By 2019, when Hessler arrived at Sichuan University, he found a very different China and a new kind of student—an only child whose schooling was the object of intense focus from a much more ambitious and sophisticated cohort of parents. Hessler’s new students have a sense of irony about the regime but mostly navigate its restrictions with equanimity, and embrace the astonishing new opportunities China’s boom affords. But the pressures of this system of extreme “meritocracy” at scale can be gruesome, even for much younger children, including his own daughters, who give him and his wife an intimate view into the experience at their local school.
In Peter Hessler’s hands, China’s education system is the perfect vehicle for examining what’s happened to the country, where it’s going, and what we can learn from it, for good and ill. At a time when anti-Chinese rhetoric in America has grown blunter and uglier, Other Rivers is a tremendous, indeed an essential gift, a work of enormous human empathy that rejects cheap stereotypes and shows us China from the inside out and the bottom up, using as a measuring stick this most universally relatable set of experiences. As both a window onto China and a distant mirror onto America and its own education system, Other Rivers is a classic, a book of tremendous value and compelling human interest.
这是一本关于中国心脏地带两代学生的亲密而揭示性记录，由一位观察了过去二十五年中中国剧变的作者何伟所撰写。

在中国经济腾飞的初期教授英语二十多年后，何伟回到四川省，教导下一代的学生。他的这段经历也在他的书《江城》中有所记录。同时，何伟和妻子将双胞胎女儿送入了当地一所国立小学，她们是唯一的西方学生。多年来，何伟与许多他在上世纪90年代教过的人保持密切联系。这些人如今已是四十多岁的中国“改革一代”。通过与这些人重聚，同时教导当代的大学生，何伟获得了一个独特的视角，目睹了中国令人难以置信的变化。

1996年何伟抵达中国时，他班上的几乎所有人都是第一代大学生。他们通常来自大型农村家庭，父母多为维持生计的农民，对孩子踏入全新世界几乎无法提供指导。到2019年，何伟来到四川大学，他见到的是一个截然不同的中国以及一种新的学生类型——独生子女，他们的教育是一个更加雄心勃勃的家长群体的重中之重。在四川大学，许多年轻人对体制抱有一种讽刺的态度，但大多数人平静地适应着体制的限制，并拥抱中国崛起带来的机会。然而，极度竞争的压力依然让人精疲力尽，甚至影响到更年幼的孩子——包括何伟的女儿们，她们的学校经历让他得以深入了解当地教育环境。

在何伟的笔下，中国的教育体系成了审视这个国家的过去、现在和未来的完美媒介，让我们从中汲取正面和负面的经验。在美国反华言论愈加尖锐和丑陋之际，《Other Rivers》是一本不可或缺的巨著，饱含深厚的同理心，摒弃了廉价的刻板印象，从内而外、从下至上地展示了中国。这本书既是对中国的窗口，也是对美国的镜子，堪称这位大师级作者的经典之作。

Enchanted Revolution moves religion and gender to center stage in the Chinese Communist revolution, examining the mobilizational dynamics of anti-superstition propaganda in support of the Communist Party's rise from rural backwaters to national dominance. Xiaofei Kang argues that religion was not merely adversary for the revolutionaries-it also served as a model for the ways in which the Party mobilized support and constructed legitimacy. In this parallel and often paradoxical process, the Party attacked "superstitions" that had long supported the foundations of Chinese religious life. At the same time, Party propaganda co-opted these same religious resources for its own political ends. Kang demonstrates that the persuasive power of Party propaganda relied heavily on recasting the cosmic forces of yin and yang that sustained the traditional gender hierarchy and ritual order. Moreover, revolutionary art and literature revamped old narratives of female ghosts and ritual exorcism to inject the people with a new masculinist vision of the Party-state endowed with both scientific potency and the heavenly mandate. Gendered language and symbolism in Chinese religion thus remained central to inspiring pathos, ethos, and logos for the revolution. Enchanted Revolution sheds light on the contemporary significance of the Maoist legacy in China through a deft exploration of the complex interplay of religion, gender, and revolution.

從黑暗逃進更深的黑暗時，你可以如何保有勇氣？<br /><br /> <br /><br />荷蘭人色爾瑪逃離了納粹的迫害，來到了中國，卻親身見證了大躍進與大飢荒，也是文革期間唯一受困中國的荷蘭人。她如何目睹新中國從備受期待演變成大型人道危機，又如何保持了自己在黑暗中的勇氣？<br /><br /> <br /><br />二十世紀中，北京除了是共產新中國的首都，也聚集了來自各國的毛澤東共產主義支持者，人們對這片土地的發展滿懷期待，但事與願違。本書藉由荷裔猶太人色爾瑪的人生經歷，在他倖存的親友協助下，細膩地呈現毛澤東統治時期複雜、嚴峻的革命氛圍，以及飢荒、批鬥等人道危機。<br /><br /> <br /><br />色爾瑪．佛斯在荷蘭出生、成長，二戰期間成功逃離了納粹的迫害。就讀劍橋大學期間，色爾瑪遇上了她未來的丈夫：曹日昌。兩人生下子女後，在北京共組家庭。<br /><br /> <br /><br />曹日昌在共產新中國身居要職，但有外國血統的色爾瑪與其子女卻始終被社會另眼看待。一連串的政治風暴將中國推向文化大革命，曹日昌最終倒台被捕，色爾瑪隨後遭到拘禁，子女下鄉勞改。<br /><br /> <br /><br />色爾瑪成為唯一親身經歷過百花齊放、百家爭鳴、大躍進、大飢荒與文化大革命的荷蘭人。她與家人接連成為毛澤東意識形態下的受害者。<br /><br /><br /><br />透過色爾瑪的書信&amp;

「我額頭上的靶心，也不能使我下跪」
誠實面對恐懼、永不放棄自由，
一段穿透黑暗，滅頂與生還的故事

　　◆ 首部維吾爾知識分子對中國種族清洗的證詞
　　◆ 見證暴政底下的扭曲人性，以及個體生命的堅韌勇敢
　　◆ 翻譯15國語言，國際名家感動推薦

　　家園被毀，語言遭禁，摯愛的人隨風而逝。這是無數名新疆維吾爾人的現實，也是詩人塔依爾的生命經歷。塔依爾・哈穆特・伊茲格爾是一位知名的維吾爾詩人與知識分子，他在家鄉執導電影維生，與妻女過著恬靜的生活。然而，在少數民族備受歧視的中國政權底下，塔依爾與族人的性命和自由，始終都操縱在別人手中。

　　二〇一六年，中國政府在新疆維吾爾自治區實施「維穩」措施，以防禦恐怖主義與分離主義之名，對維族人展開全面性監控跟大規模逮捕。市民商家被迫加入反恐陣線、人們被鼓勵監視彼此，店舖刀具被拴住、收音機被銷毀，然而最駭人的是塔依爾開始看到熟悉的鄰居、朋友、家人一個接著一個消失蹤影。面對四面八方滲入的恐懼，塔依爾開始在夜間準備耐穿的鞋子與暖和衣服，以便在夜半被警察帶走時，能夠保持溫暖。而對塔依爾與妻女來說，離開深愛的家園似乎是唯一的希望……

　　《等待在夜裡被捕》是一部令人心碎與警醒的回憶錄。作者塔依爾以飽含詩意的筆觸，寫下他的家園、文化、社會被毀的經歷，並記錄極權體制下，國家發展出的高科技監控與政治信用體系，如何深入日常，扭曲每一個人的肉身、心靈與記憶。作者寫下本書，既是為當下此刻，仍在新疆再教育營受難的維吾爾族人發聲，也向我們揭示一個殘忍與希望並存的世界，那個世界值得我們投注恆久關注的目光。

　　「新疆有才華的維吾爾作家多如繁星，但據我所知，在大規模抓捕展開後，成功逃出中國的只有塔依爾。」──喬舒亞‧弗里曼（Joshua L. Freeman）／中研院近史所助研院員、《等待在夜裡被捕》英文版譯者

　　「十年或二十年後，如果人們想了解那一刻，他們會讀這本書。」──戴倫．拜勒（Darren Byler）／加拿大卑詩省西門菲莎大學國際研究助理教授、《新疆再教育營》作者

本書特色

　　1.第一部新疆維吾爾知識份子對中國實施種族滅絕的證詞
　　2.以詩意節制的筆法，書寫維吾爾族人的歷史傷痛與受迫害處境
　　3.一段嚴謹而審慎的證詞，記錄中國高科技監控對常民生活造成的深遠影響

　　專文導讀／推薦序：
　　阿潑｜媒體工作者
　　曹馭博｜詩人、作家

共同推薦

　　李志德｜資深新聞工作者
　　李明哲｜人權工作者
　　張惠菁｜作家
　　熊倉潤｜日本法政大學法學部國際政治學科教授
　　閻紀宇｜專業譯者
　　顏擇雅｜出版人、作家

　　「塔依爾．哈穆特．伊茲格爾的動人之作《等待在夜裡被捕》，喚起他在家鄉遭受的恐怖與迫害，以及種種讓人難以忘懷的記憶，在那裡夢想變成惡夢。儘管伊茲格爾的敘述極為沉重，但他的寫作依然平靜真誠。他的故事引人入勝，引發人們同理。只將這本書稱作一本『好書』是太過保守的評價，這是一本必讀之作。」──艾未未／中國藝術家

　　「我們或多或少知道維吾爾人在中國經歷的災難：數位監控、大規模逮捕與再教育營，並很難想像有人的個性與情感能在其中倖存下來。但塔依爾是一名罕見的藝術家，他作為一名詩人以極其生動的細節，記錄流亡歷經的完整情感弧線，包含恐懼、機智、失落，以及倖存者的愧疚。即便我們無法理解新疆何以發生這種悲劇，塔依爾依然提醒我們這些事為什麼至關重要。」
──何偉／非虛構寫作大師、「中國三部曲」作者

　　「一部非凡的著作。本書悲傷而充滿勇氣，對不受控管的國家權力傳達最有力的文學控訴。」──沙茲／《人權的條件》作者

　　「《等待在夜裡被捕》在人權書中是一個異類，伊茲格爾的寫作審慎而節制，既未描寫酷刑與暴力場景，也未提及有關種族滅絕的廣泛聲明……儘管本書敘事像一部經典恐怖電影，但其實是一部心裡驚悚片。它描述相對正常的生活如何逐一消失，現實如何成為一場夢魘。」──芭芭拉．德米克／《吃佛》、《我們最幸福》作者

　　「《等待在夜裡被捕》是一本令人恐懼而引人入勝的作品……伊茲格爾將讀者引入恐懼和猜疑的漩渦，展開一段像恐怖小說的敘事，但卻是一種更加令人不安的版本，因為這是一段在失控的專制主義下發生的真實故事。我不只推薦這本書給關注中國監控體制的讀者，更推薦給廣泛大眾。」──張彥／《中國的靈魂》作者

　　「這是一本異常有力、抒情深刻且翻譯精美的書，我強烈建議大家一讀。它以令人難忘的細節與書中複雜的人性，揭示現代中國政府對維吾爾社會、文化的攻擊，以及隨之產生的緊迫人道主義危機。」──藍詩玲／《毛主義》作者

　　「十年或二十年後，如果人們想了解那一刻，他們會讀這本書。」──戴倫．拜勒／《新疆再教育營》作者

　　「我被塔依爾．哈穆特．伊茲格爾寫下有關監視、拘留、暴力迫害與奇蹟般逃亡的回憶吸引，並感到警惕。中國維吾爾公民面臨的人道危機，是對所有國家與人們的控訴。伊茲格爾晶瑩勇敢的散文，對所有深信自由與其可能性的人而言，都是一記警醒。」──崔西．K．史密斯／美國前桂冠詩人

　　「清晰傳達無聲恐懼的回憶錄，一本沉重、令人著迷的書，帶著勒卡雷小說悠緩冷酷的沸騰感……透過伊茲格爾細膩的筆觸，閱讀本書能感受到人性中的悲傷與優雅。」──《華盛頓郵報》

　　「令人震撼……《等待在夜裡被捕》是至今為止，跟二○一五年以來新疆種族滅絕政策有關的最佳歷史紀錄之一。這本書身歷其境的第一人稱敘述視角尤其具有價值……我們只能希望隨著這本書翻譯，全球能對伊茲格爾引人入勝的故事和維吾爾文學投注更多應有的關注。」──《波士頓環球報》

　　「伊茲格爾的回憶錄是關於如何在壓迫變成常態、國家權力張狂的社會中生存和謀求生路的故事。這本書的節制是它的力量，敘事中的緊張源自標題展現的恐懼──等待被捕、被消失與拘留的恐懼，這是任何一名維吾爾人都無法逃脫的恐懼。」──《衛報》

　　「《等待在夜裡被捕》不僅是關於一次偉大逃脫的扣人心弦敘述，也不只是對我們這個時代最可怕的種族滅絕之一的譴責。它也是一種不容小覷的呼籲，要求人們切勿調轉目光、視而不見。」──《泰晤士報》
 

這終究是一個關於愛的故事。

記憶會傷人──這是賀殷殷，從出生始，就難逃的命運。父親告訴她：「賀殷殷的殷，是殷海光的殷。」──但是這故事，並不單單勾起早期的民主運動記憶，有一天，它還要溯及日治時期閩客通婚的變形家庭。在此誕生的賀殷殷之母，將是文學中非常難以消化的角色──口口聲聲保衛客家文化的她，能把最簡單的台灣事，都說得破爛不堪。然而這，全只因為國民黨政權，施加於台灣島的噤聲歷史使然嗎？除此之外，透過私密、甚至是檯面下的小恩小怨小彆扭，作者刻畫了，比使命感更複雜的，那些催生，或延誤同志書寫的頡抗因素。那些，文學史絕對不會告訴你的事……。「雖然我個人有點不甘願，但我最後還是發現，這終究是一個關於愛的故事。──認同，有那麼難嗎？無論是族群的、或是性別的認同......我的答案是，沒有錯，認同有夠難，難上還加難。──但這不代表我們會轉身離去。這本書的企圖，仍然是種共患難，一個『我在這裡』的認真回聲。關於寂寞及其未被毀滅。」張亦絢道。
孫梓評：書中人物之鮮明，心理地景之立體，又讓我感覺它能不只屬於同女，而剝除了性別，像十四歲的賀殷殷竭耗心神求得的一悟：「基本的人性」。（……）它更廣泛寫出了人在感情裡可能的殘忍和容忍，屏息讀著那些流淌過皮膚表面的高溫情感熔漿，使人隱隱想起某些久遠之事（……）啟蒙同時也是（開）啟盟（誓），無論守約或背棄都是艱難。
張亦絢：把這個方法跟你說到的「國族寓言」併看，我更傾向說它是「國族欲言」；設計的是一整套的退化與退行，在這裡說「死外省人」是OK的，「歷史讓人頭痛」也是OK的﹝……﹞如果說「代言」，應該不太是「代言」，而是「帶言」。因為我關心的是語言的可能性，而不是完好的論述。——摘錄自《永別書》附錄〈別後通訊：在揮手的時間裡〉


◎收錄孫梓評×張亦絢書信往返〈別後通訊：在揮手的時間裡〉，看見小說家究竟在想什麼。

◎收有張亦絢回答編輯提問〈情不自禁及其他：答編輯問〉，網址：http://bit.ly/1JJMAlN
  作者簡介    

張亦絢
 
1973年出生於台北木柵。巴黎第三大學電影及視聽研究所碩士。早期作品，曾入選同志文學選與台灣文學選。另著有《我們沿河冒險》(國片優良劇本佳作)、《小道消息》，長篇小說《愛的不久時：南特 / 巴黎回憶錄》(台北國際書展大賞入圍)。

網站：nathaliechang.wix.com/nathaliechang

這本書沒有列出一千種快樂的方法，一萬個快活逍遙遊好去處。還沒放下心裡的包袱，逍遙得到哪裡去？沒提供心靈的雞湯，湯只能補身，我不自兩量力試圖扮神農嚐草開藥，所以選擇殘忍地嘗試把這包袱打開，理解痛苦的來源，才能為心把關，只有心無挂礙，才能讓煩惱與痛苦貶值到視而不見，才能找回快樂的生母：安樂自在。
再說白點，舉例，關於愛情，因安樂而快樂，就是做到「不錯過任何挑逗，也不為任何人等候」，「不給我的我不要 ，不是我的我不愛」。
書名叫《原來你非不快樂》，副題該是「得你一人未發覺」。
一念天堂，一念地獄，快樂本由心決定，一如空氣存在，用力呼吸才會發覺，但用力呼吸到喘息，便生了害怕失去之心，執著於快樂，便不快樂。
書分為八章，最後一章講死亡，因為作者深信未知死焉知生，正如未知苦焉知樂。對終極結局忌諱，沒有想過探索之後的出路，之前的快樂都是一場快活的幻覺罷了。
快樂不可能從外境追求， 因為現實挫敗難免，只能往自己內在的心修練，才能無敵無懼於外在遭遇。不用找，不要追。

The Backstreets is an astonishing novel by a preeminent contemporary Uyghur author who was disappeared by the Chinese state. It follows an unnamed Uyghur man who comes to the impenetrable Chinese capital of Xinjiang after finding a temporary job in a government office. Seeking to escape the pain and poverty of the countryside, he finds only cold stares and rejection. He wanders the streets, accompanied by the bitter fog of winter pollution, reciting a monologue of numbers and odors, lust and loathing, memories and madness.
Perhat Tursun's novel is a work of untrammeled literary creativity. His evocative prose recalls a vast array of canonical world writers--contemporary Chinese authors such as Mo Yan; the modernist images and rhythms of Camus, Dostoevsky, and Kafka; the serious yet absurdist dissection of the logic of racism in Ellison's Invisible Man--while drawing deeply on Uyghur literary traditions and Sufi poetics and combining all these disparate influences into a style that is distinctly Tursun's own. The Backstreets is a stark fable about urban isolation and social violence, dehumanization and the racialization of ethnicity. Yet its protagonist's vivid recollections of maternal tenderness and first love reveal how memory and imagination offer profound forms of resilience. A translator's introduction situates the novel in the political atmosphere that led to the disappearance of both the author and his work.

Review
The publication of Perhat Tursun's The Backstreets, together with Darren Byler's illuminating introductions, is a landmark event in English-language world literature. Tursun's narration of the life of an Uyghur office worker in Ürümchi is unforgettable and quietly mindblowing. The style, mood, and scope are evocative of Camus (or maybe of an alternative Camus who wrote from an Algerian perspective), while still feeling utterly distinctive and unprecedented. A triumph.--Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot

About the Author
Perhat Tursun is a leading Uyghur writer, poet, and social critic from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. He has published many short stories and poems as well as three novels, including the controversial 1999 novel The Art of Suicide, decried as anti-Islamic. In 2018, he was detained by the Chinese authorities and was reportedly given a sixteen-year prison sentence.
Darren Byler is assistant professor of international studies at Simon Fraser University and author of In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony (2021). His anonymous cotranslator, who disappeared in 2017, is presumed to be in the reeducation camp system in northwest China.

這關鍵15年，成就了你我熟知的現代中國！
也許，沒有誰的國家是真的。
在建國神話的夢幻中，真相與謊言，都成了現實。
這是課本中最混亂、難以卒睹、令人放棄理解的一段歷史，
是一個政府走向潰敗、國家邁向分裂、人民必須受難，真相難辨的傷痛故事。
和平被有關民族間平等、擁有自決權利、民主和人權等偉大原則割裂。它無法產生希望，也無法形成和解，卻能夠滋養核戰和末日的恐懼。──方德萬
今日的中國，何以會是如此？到底是誰打贏了關鍵的戰爭？
隔海高唱的歷史，哪個才是真的？
第二次世界大戰是型塑現代世界的關鍵，中國在其中的角色尤其難解。這段近代中國進程，由連串的錯誤、分裂、敗亡、注定受難的傷痛寫就。
《戰火中國》以全新視角，重新梳理這段令人慨歎，凝縮重要轉捩點與變化的歷史，且在大脈絡下特別穿插陳克文與齊邦媛的個人史，補足了大歷史角度忽略的老百姓生命軌跡。
過去西方學者認為中國在二戰無足輕重，但《戰火中國》作者方德萬指出，當眾人目光集中在歐洲戰場時，1937年至1952年中國正在打一場複雜的全面戰爭，不但要面對同時並存、相互拉扯的多股的外敵，還有同樣分裂並進的內憂。
新中國，就在這麼飄搖動蕩的土地上誕生。
要探究新中國真正的本質，必須盡力拋開抵抗外侮的英雄式主觀論述色彩，同時並論各派系在抗戰時期的作為、決策、成功與失敗，以及日本、蘇聯、美國、英國等勢力的政治考量與行動。《戰火中國》全書分為四部份：第一部「立國大業」論析蔣介石掌權至1937年中日開戰期間，圍繞其與國民黨的連串事件；第二部「歷史轉捩點」講述對日抗戰的時代精神轉變，分論日本、國民黨如何試圖取勝，以及中國共產黨的擴張；第三部「試煉」和第四部「新中國」，則檢視成為世界大戰一部分的抗日戰爭、日本戰敗後的中國內戰，以及在韓戰中逐漸浮現的冷戰面貌。

“I had experienced absolute freedom—I had felt that my body was without boundaries, limitless; that pain didn’t matter, that nothing mattered at all—and it intoxicated me.”
In 2010, more than 750,000 people stood in line at Marina Abramović’s MoMA retrospective for the chance to sit across from her and communicate with her nonverbally in an unprecedented durational performance that lasted more than 700 hours. This celebration of nearly fifty years of groundbreaking performance art demonstrated once again that Marina Abramović is truly a force of nature.
The child of Communist war-hero parents under Tito’s regime in postwar Yugoslavia, she was raised with a relentless work ethic. Even as she was beginning to build an international artistic career, Marina lived at home under her mother’s abusive control, strictly obeying a 10 p.m. curfew. But nothing could quell her insatiable curiosity, her desire to connect with people, or her distinctly Balkan sense of humor—all of which informs her art and her life. The beating heart of Walk Through Walls is an operatic love story—a twelve-year collaboration with fellow performance artist Ulay, much of which was spent penniless in a van traveling across Europe—a relationship that began to unravel and came to a dramatic end atop the Great Wall of China.
Marina’s story, by turns moving, epic, and dryly funny, informs an incomparable artistic career that involves pushing her body past the limits of fear, pain, exhaustion, and danger in an uncompromising quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. A remarkable work of performance in its own right, Walk Through Walls is a vivid and powerful rendering of the unparalleled life of an extraordinary artist.

The memoir from Australia's much-loved comedian, Hannah Gadsby, whose stand-up show and self-described swan-song, NANETTE, won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2017 before transferring to New York, where it went on to achieve critical acclaim.

For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Michiko Kakutani, New York Times • Newsday • Esquire • NPR • Booklist
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.
Praise for Born a Crime
“[A] compelling new memoir . . . By turns alarming, sad and funny, [Trevor Noah’s] book provides a harrowing look, through the prism of Mr. Noah’s family, at life in South Africa under apartheid. . . . Born a Crime is not just an unnerving account of growing up in South Africa under apartheid, but a love letter to the author’s remarkable mother.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“[An] unforgettable memoir.”—Parade
“What makes Born a Crime such a soul-nourishing pleasure, even with all its darker edges and perilous turns, is reading Noah recount in brisk, warmly conversational prose how he learned to negotiate his way through the bullying and ostracism. . . . What also helped was having a mother like Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah. . . . Consider Born a Crime another such gift to her—and an enormous gift to the rest of us.”—USA Today
“[Noah] thrives with the help of his astonishingly fearless mother. . . . Their fierce bond makes this story soar.”—People
“[Noah’s] electrifying memoir sparkles with funny stories . . . and his candid and compassionate essays deepen our perception of the complexities of race, gender, and class.”—Booklist (starred review)
“A gritty memoir . . . studded with insight and provocative social criticism . . . with flashes of brilliant storytelling and acute observations.”—Kirkus Reviews
Review
“[A] compelling new memoir . . . By turns alarming, sad and funny, [Trevor Noah’s] book provides a harrowing look, through the prism of Mr. Noah’s family, at life in South Africa under apartheid. . . . In the end, Born a Crime is not just an unnerving account of growing up in South Africa under apartheid, but a love letter to the author’s remarkable mother.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“[An] unforgettable memoir.”—Parade
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a comic’s origin story better than the one Trevor Noah serves up in Born a Crime. . . . [He] developed his aptitude for witty truth telling [and]…every hardscrabble memory of helping his mother scrape together money for food, gas, school fees, and rent, or barely surviving the temper of his stepfather, Abel, reveals the anxious wellsprings of the comedian’s ambition and success. If there is harvest in spite of blight, the saying goes, one does not credit the blight-but Noah does manage to wring brilliant comedy from it.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“What makes Born a Crime such a soul-nourishing pleasure, even with all its darker edges and perilous turns, is reading Noah recount in brisk, warmly conversational prose how he learned to negotiate his way through the bullying and ostracism. . . . What also helped was having a mother like Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah. . . . Consider Born a Crime another such gift to her—and an enormous gift to the rest of us.”—USA Today
“[Noah] thrives with the help of his astonishingly fearless mother. . . . Their fierce bond makes this story soar.”—People
“This isn't your average comic-writes-a-memoir: It’s a unique look at a man who is a product of his culture—and a nuanced look at a part of the world whose people have known dark times easily pushed aside.”—Refinery29
“Noah’s memoir is extraordinary . . . essential reading on every level. It’s hard to imagine anyone else doing a finer job of it.”—The Seattle Times
“Powerful prose . . . told through stories and vignettes that are sharply observed, deftly conveyed and consistently candid. Growing organically from them is an affecting investigation of identity, ethnicity, language, masculinity, nationality and, most of all, humanity—all issues that the election of Donald Trump in the United States shows are foremost in minds and hearts everywhere. . . . What the reader gleans are the insights that made Noah the thoughtful, observant, empathic man who wrote Born a Crime. . . . Here is a level-headed man, forged by remarkable and shocking life incidents, who is quietly determined and who knows where home and the heart lie. Would this unique story have been published had it been about someone not a celebrity of the planet? Possibly not, and to the detriment of potential readers, because this is a warm and very human story of the type that we will need to survive the Trump presidency’s imminent freezing of humane values.”—Mail & Guardian (South Africa)
“[Noah’s] story of surviving—and thriving—is mind-blowing.”—Cosmopolitan
“A gifted storyteller, able to deftly lace his poignant tales with amusing irony.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Noah has a real tale to tell, and he tells it well. . . . Among the many virtues of Born a Crime is a frank and telling portrait of life in South Africa during the 1980s and ’90s. . . . Born a Crime offers Americans a second introduction to Trevor Noah, and he makes a real impression.”—Newsday
“An affecting memoir, Born a Crime [is] a love letter to his mother.”—The Washington Post
“Witty and revealing . . . Noah’s story is the story of modern South Africa; though he enjoyed some privileges of the region’s slow Westernization, his formative years were shaped by poverty, injustice, and violence. Noah is quick with a disarming joke, and he skillfully integrates the parallel narratives via interstitial asides between chapters. . . . Perhaps the most harrowing tales are those of his abusive stepfather, which form the book’s final act (and which Noah cleverly foreshadows throughout earlier chapters), but equally prominent are the laugh-out-loud yarns about going to the prom, and the differences between ‘White Church’ and ‘Black Church.’”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] substantial collection of staggering personal essays . . . Incisive, funny, and vivid, these true tales are anchored to his portrait of his courageous, rebellious, and religious mother who defied racially restrictive laws to secure an education and a career for herself—and to have a child with a white Swiss/German even though sex between whites and blacks was illegal. . . . [Trevor Noah’s] electrifying memoir sparkles with funny stories . . . and his candid and compassionate essays deepen our perception of the complexities of race, gender, and class.”—Booklist (starred review)
“A gritty memoir . . . studded with insight and provocative social criticism . . . with flashes of brilliant storytelling and acute observations.”—Kirkus Reviews

K.是受雇于城堡的土地测量员。当他抵达城堡下面的村子，想在村中留宿时，却因没有城堡的留宿许可而遭受冷遇。为了确认城堡对自己的任命，K.想方设法接近城堡。但面对管理制度森严的城堡和恪守规则的村民们，K.感到十分无奈，似乎每向前迈一步，就会堵死一条去往城堡的路。城堡虽然近在咫尺，却是K.可望而不可即的……

1925年，金发的康奈尔大学毕业生受中华纱业联合会委托，放弃上海教职，来到被一名年轻北方军官占领的东南小镇，试图培育一种能挽救华东纺织业的棉花。

《后台》第一辑分“行动”、“思考”、“争论”三部分。
“行动”展现了记者在采访报道过程中的辛酸苦乐：如何在垃圾里找到新闻线索；如何靠借宿减缩采访费用来确保客观报道而避免因靠赞助不得不在报道中“卖身”；如何与采访对象建立良好关系以获得持续关注；如何通过多方采访使报道更具“肉感”……
“思考”凝集了编辑记者的职业思考和经验心得：大到如何理解把握“客观报道”的标准与“道德化”的尺度、如何实现大尺度观察与细节化表述的兼容，小到如何与官员打交道、如何规范使用人名头衔、如何正确表述匿名消息源……
而“争论”则借由报社内部对《平时是天使 周末是魔鬼》一文的激烈辩论，直观生动地呈现出南方周末内部评报传统与新闻操作后台。

《生活在别处》是一个年轻艺术家的肖像画。昆德拉以其独到的笔触塑造出雅罗米尔这样一个形象，描绘了这个年轻诗人充满激情而又短暂的一生，具有“发展小说”的许多特点。在这部作品中，作者对诗人创作过程的分析是微妙而精细的。创作过程当然不仅指下笔写作的过程，而且更广义地指一个诗人的全部成长过程。作者所要表现和所要探究的是，人的心灵所具有的激情，它的产生和它的结果。因而这本书又是一本现代心理小说，表现了一个诗人的艺术感觉的成长。

飢餓的滋味他還是第一次嘗到。
心頭有一種沉悶的空虛，不斷的咬嚙著他，鈍刀鈍鋸磨著他。
那種痛苦是介於牙痛與傷心之間，
使他眼睛裏望出去，一切都成為夢境一樣的虛 幻──
《秧歌》是張愛玲用寫實的筆調和敏銳的感性譜寫的農村哀歌。她由個人的溫飽出發，寫人們如何踉踉蹌蹌地追趕新時代前進的步伐，在新的政治體制下學說新話。然而，面對貧窮和飢餓的窘境，他們終於忍無可忍地暴動起來，引發恐怖的悲劇。全書在平淡中有張力，在慘澹中有滑稽，寓怪誕於真實，亦寄深情於日常。當肩負沉重擔子的人們再度扭起秧歌，既展現出張愛玲對複雜人性最深沉的凝視，也標誌著張愛玲小說風格的重大轉變。