在一个历史被缺席的国度，有人正力图守护和抢救记忆
拉美当代文学大师皮格利亚与乔伊斯、博尔赫斯、福克纳、但丁等伟大作家间的文本对话
这是一个侦探故事，一篇爱情小说，还是一则政治寓言，一部科幻小说？
✒️ 编辑推荐
◎ 拉美当代文学大师里卡多·皮格利亚代表作中文版初面世。
阿根廷作家里卡多·皮格利亚是“拉丁美洲最独特的文学声音之一”，曾获多项西班牙语文学重要奖项。《缺席的城市》是其长篇小说代表作之一，已被译为多国语言，曾被阿根廷20世纪重要音乐家赫拉尔多·甘迪尼（Gerardo Gandini）改编为同名歌剧。
◎ 军事独裁政治中的文学抵抗，在一个历史被缺席的国度，有人正力图守护和抢救记忆。
拉美的极权主义的历史由来以久，尤以智利、阿根廷和乌拉圭最为严酷。本书的故事背景设置在豪尔赫·拉斐尔·魏地拉统治阿根廷的军事独裁时期，其间，反对独裁政权的作家和知识分子常常莫名失踪。
在书中，当“女身机器”输出的故事传播真相时，警察便试图介入以将之捣毁，从而确保社会话语的稳定和对记忆的抹除。拯救这台机器，就是守护和抢救我们记忆的权利：她是永恒，是流淌着故事的河流，是让记忆保持鲜活的永不休止的声音。
◎ 一段跨越体裁边界的先锋叙事，这是皮格利亚抛出的具无尽魅力的故事之引诱。
在迷人的侦探故事的外衣下，本书也是一个关于爱与失去的爱情故事，一则隐喻被严密监视的压抑现实的政治寓言，一部令人想起威廉·巴勒斯作品的赛博朋克科幻小说。在这里，如同布宜诺斯艾利斯市的大街小巷，多重的线索相互交叠，消弥着叙事的边界，令故事的魅力无穷放大。
皮格利亚主张“所有的故事都是侦探小说”，他以天马行空的创意对文本进行加密，而读者则化身为侦探去解码。我们阅读这部小说，仿佛可以花上一辈子去解其中的谜。
◎ 一篇伟大作家间的文本对话，这是皮格利亚诗学宇宙的一次丰盈呈现。
除了小说家的身份，皮格利亚亦是一位优秀的文学批评家。在其小说写作中，他常常通过融入互文、戏仿等后现代结构手法与叙事技巧，在与经典作家的对话中，呈现其在真实与虚构、政治与文学、历史与现状等方面的深刻洞见。
在《缺席的城市》中，皮格利亚频繁出入于博尔赫斯、乔伊斯、福克纳、爱伦·坡、亨利·詹姆斯等作家的文本，更是对马塞多尼奥·费尔南德斯、罗伯特·阿尔特、《神曲》《一千零一夜》等多有指涉。他以精妙绝伦的叙事技巧，让我们一窥其丰盈的诗学宇宙。
✒️ 内容简介
布宜诺斯艾利斯市的一名记者朱尼尔在收到爆料后，踏上了追查一台神秘机器的旅途。
这台机器拥有一个女人的心智和灵魂，能够输出故事。它是由一个与阿根廷先锋小说家马塞多尼奥·费尔南德斯同名的人物，在心爱的女人去世后创造的，其目的是让爱人在讲述故事中获得永生。
除了个人的爱情回忆，机器还守护着流传在城市里的集体记忆。当她通过重重文本和磁带录音，影射现实、传播真相时，警察也介入进来，试图将机器捣毁。
朱尼尔在城市里四处游荡，在不同的故事中进进退退，试图解开那条总是充满等待和延宕的线索。直到有一天，他来到了世界尽头的的一座小岛上……
✒️ 名人&媒体推荐
显然，皮格利亚追随的是异想天开的马塞多尼奥·费尔南德斯，以及两位黑色天才罗伯特·阿尔特和胡安·卡洛斯·奥内蒂的脚步。但他仍是一位具有原创性的天才作家，他的天马行空冲击着传统叙事的边界。《缺席的城市》是一部戏仿侦探故事的小说，它引诱读者持续读下去的疑问不是“接下来会发生什么”，而是“刚刚发生了什么”。
—— 罗伯特·库弗，美国后现代主义作家
一部真正惊人而富于新意的小说，来自拉丁美洲最受推崇的作家之一。皮格利亚将幽暗的真相与幻想的冒险玩于股掌，组成一个旋涡一般的故事。
—— 格温·柯克帕特里克
皮格利亚是阿根廷最重要的小说家，一位充满魅力的作家和富有社会责任感的知识分子，他对政治与虚构之间的复杂关系进行了大胆探索。《缺席的城市》是一部属于我们这个时代的作品，它超越了国界。
—— 弗朗辛·马塞洛
毋庸置疑，皮格利亚是黑色小说在拉普拉塔河地区的推广发展贡献最大的作家之一。
—— 门波·希亚迪内斯，阿根廷文学评论家
有两个特点令皮格利亚的作品富有生命力：首先，是他审美上对局外人和社会边缘的偏爱，这进而使他对压迫和反抗之间的权力动态关系比较警惕；其次，是他对几乎被遗忘的旧世界的怀念。……在他的小说《缺席的城市》中，如旋涡般的故事将读者带至半个世纪以前，部分原因是为了寻找传奇人物马塞多尼奥·费尔南德斯—— 博尔赫斯的精神导师。而我们在那个世界遇到的是什么呢？汽车旅馆、破酒馆、磁带机、疯了的科学家、落魄的作家、丢失的信件，等等。
——《泰晤士文学增刊》
拉丁美洲最独特的文学声音之一……正是阴谋作为常规这一前提——这也是皮格利亚作品的核心——最富预言意味。
——《纽约客》
他拥有的伟大文学才能包括：将情节置于一个精确的世界，对事实和人物的精准观察，明晰的语言，以及使读者着迷于他且让故事与底层的诗学力量之间保持张力的文学智慧。
—— 罗慕洛·加列戈斯文学奖授奖词

From bestselling writer David Graeber, a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs, and their consequences.
Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After a million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer.
There are millions of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs.
Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation.

The fascinating, untold story of how the Chinese language overcame unparalleled challenges and revolutionized the world of computing.
A standard QWERTY keyboard has a few dozen keys. How can Chinese—a language with tens of thousands of characters and no alphabet—be input on such a device? In The Chinese Computer, Thomas Mullaney sets out to resolve this paradox, and in doing so, discovers that the key to this seemingly impossible riddle has given rise to a new epoch in the history of writing—a form of writing he calls “hypography.” Based on fifteen years of research, this pathbreaking history of the Chinese language charts the beginnings of electronic Chinese technology in the wake of World War II up through to its many iterations in the present day.
Mullaney takes the reader back through the history and evolution of Chinese language computing technology, showing the development of electronic Chinese input methods—software programs that enable Chinese characters to be produced using alphanumeric symbols—and the profound impact they have had on the way Chinese is written. Along the way, Mullaney introduces a cast of brilliant and eccentric personalities drawn from the ranks of IBM, MIT, the CIA, the Pentagon, the Taiwanese military, and the highest rungs of mainland Chinese establishment, to name a few, and the unexpected roles they played in developing Chinese language computing. Finally, he shows how China and the non-Western world—because of the hypographic technologies they had to invent in order to join the personal computing revolution—“saved” the Western computer from its deep biases, enabling it to achieve a meaningful presence in markets outside of the Americas and Europe.
An eminently engaging and artfully told history, The Chinese Computer is a must-read for anyone interested in how culture informs computing and how computing, in turn, shapes culture.

Ready, set, liftoff! Align your team to one purpose: successful delivery. Learn new insights and techniques for starting projects and teams the right way, with expanded concepts for planning, organizing, and conducting liftoff meetings. Real-life stories illustrate how others have effectively started (or restarted) their teams and projects. Master coaches Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies have successfully "lifted off" numerous agile projects worldwide. Are you ready for success?

Every team needs a great start. If you're a business or product leader, team coach or agile practice lead, project or program manager, you'll gain strategic and tactical benefits from liftoffs.

Discover new step-by-step instructions and techniques for boosting team performance in this second edition of Liftoft. Concrete examples from our practices show you how to get everyone on the same page from the start as you form the team. You'll find pointers for refocusing an effort that's gone off in the weeds, and practices for working with teams as complex systems. See how to scale liftoffs for multiple teams across the enterprise, address the three key elements for collaborative team chartering, establish the optimal conditions for learning and improvement, and apply the GEFN (Good Enough for Now) rule for efficient liftoffs. Throughout the book are stories from real-life teams lifting off, as seasoned coaches describe their experiences with liftoffs and agile team chartering.

Focused conversations help the team align, form, and build enough trust for collaborating. You'll build a common understanding of the teams' context within business goals. Every liftoff is unique, but success is common!

The Story of Art, one of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, has been a world bestseller for over half a century. Attracted by the simplicity and clarity of his writing, readers of all ages and backgrounds have found in Professor Gombrich a true master, who combines knowledge and wisdom with a unique gift for communicating his deep love of the subject.
For this new, compact edition The Story of Art has been completely redesigned, giving a fresh perspective to Gombrich's well-loved text. The illustrations, collected together in a separate section towards the back of the book for easy reference, vividly illustrate the lively and engaging narrative and are in colour throughout.
The Story of Art has always been admired for two key qualities: it is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to handle. In these respects the pocket edition is no exception, combining smoothly flowing text with a clear, simple design in a convenient and accessible format. The new edition allows this classic work to continue its triumphant progress for another generation, and to remain the title of first choice for all newcomers to art.
The most famous and popular book on art ever published, this quintessential "introduction to art" has been a worldwide bestseller for over four decades. In this completely redesigned 16th edition, Gombrich, a true master, combines knowledge and wisdom with a unique gift for communicating his deep love of the subject. 440 illustrations, 376 in color.

Algorithms and Data Structures for Massive Datasets teaches you to take advantage of data processing and analytics techniques specifically designed for large distributed datasets. And you’ll be amazed how easy it is to learn such a challenging topic from this friendly guide! Complex concepts are illustrated with interesting, entertaining graphics and fascinating industry stories that show how these techniques have succeeded in the real world. You’ll study examples including Google BigTable, BitCoin, and a smart bed sensor app, learning to build data sketches for processing, querying and exploring large datasets. By the time you’re done, you’ll be able to identify the perfect algorithm to deliver faster and more reliable results for any data intensive system.
what's inside
Sketching data structures for practical problems
Choosing the right database engine for your application
Evaluating and designing efficient on-disk data structures and algorithms
Understanding the algorithmic tradeoffs involved in massive-scale systems
Deriving basic statistics from streaming data
Correctly sampling streaming data
Computing percentiles with limited space resources

An essay on aesthetics by the Japanese novelist, this book explores architecture, jade, food, and even toilets, combining an acute sense of the use of space in buildings. The book also includes descriptions of laquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure.

A jaw-dropping exploration of everything that goes wrong when we build AI systems and the movement to fix them.

Today’s "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us—and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem.

Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole—and appear to assess Black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands.

The mathematical and computational models driving these changes range in complexity from something that can fit on a spreadsheet to a complex system that might credibly be called “artificial intelligence.” They are steadily replacing both human judgment and explicitly programmed software.

In best-selling author Brian Christian’s riveting account, we meet the alignment problem’s “first-responders,” and learn their ambitious plan to solve it before our hands are completely off the wheel. In a masterful blend of history and on-the ground reporting, Christian traces the explosive growth in the field of machine learning and surveys its current, sprawling frontier. Readers encounter a discipline finding its legs amid exhilarating and sometimes terrifying progress. Whether they—and we—succeed or fail in solving the alignment problem will be a defining human story.

The Alignment Problem offers an unflinching reckoning with humanity’s biases and blind spots, our own unstated assumptions and often contradictory goals. A dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, it takes a hard look not only at our technology but at our culture—and finds a story by turns harrowing and hopeful.

Get ready to kick some software project butt. By learning the ways of the agile samurai you will discover:
* how to create plans and schedules your customer and your team can believe in
what characteristics make a good agile team and how to form your own
how to gather requirements in a fraction of the time using agile user stories
what to do when you discover your schedule is wrong, and how to look like a pro correcting it
how to execute fiercely by leveraging the power of agile software engineering practices
By the end of this book you will know everything you need to set up, execute, and successfully deliver agile projects, and have fun along the way. If you're a project lead, this book gives you the tools to set up and lead your agile project from start to finish. If you are an analyst, programmer, tester, usability designer, or project manager, this book gives you the insight and foundation necessary to become a valuable agile team member.
The Agile Samurai slices away the fluff and theory that make other books less-than-agile. It's packed with best practices, war stories, plenty of humor and hands-on tutorial exercises that will get you doing the right things, the right way.
This book will make a difference .

Great software comes from great designers. Learn the essential software architecture fundamentals every programmer needs to know. With hands-on examples in every chapter, tips and advice from respected architects, practical scenarios, and dozens of architectural design activities, Design It! shows you how to lead your team as a software architect to create excellent software.
Uncover the big ideas behind software architecture and learn practical methods for designing software systems big and small. Gain a framework for thinking about design, enabling you to plan, lead, design, implement, and evaluate software architectures. Collaborate with your team, stakeholders, and other architects. Dig for architecturally significant requirements and write detailed quality attribute scenarios. Explore design alternatives, balance trade-offs, manage risks, and choose technologies based on their architectural impact. Make the architecture real for everyone with powerful sketches, engaging stories, and lean documentation people love to read. Evaluate your designs using lightweight methods and harness the power of your team to improve the architecture over time. Host collaborative workshops that create buy-in and get the whole team excited and involved in designing the software architecture.
Hands-on exercises, real-world scenarios, and practical team-based decision-making tools will give you the experience you need to become a confident software architect.

Mila a beau ne plus avoir 9 ans, il lui arrive d’être rattrapée par ses souvenirs d’enfance. Ce qui s’est passé là-bas, à mi-chemin entre le rêve et l’insomnie, se poursuit sous d’autres formes ici, une vingtaine d’années plus tard. Que ce soit à la vue d’une très vieille photo prise par son père, à celle d’un ballon rouge qui roule à ses pieds, ou simplement en faisant la file à un guichet, quelque chose tremble encore en elle. Si les nuages lui rappellent parfois d’où elle vient, elle devine qu’ils peuvent aussi lui apprendre où aller…

The moving memoir of a scientist coming of age as an immigrant in America who finds her calling at the forefront of the AI revolution.

Wired called Dr. Fei-Fei Li “one of a tiny group of scientists—a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table—who are responsible for AI’s recent remarkable advances.”

Known to the world as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence, Dr. Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field. But her career in science was improbable from the start. As immigrants, her family faced a difficult transition from China’s middle class to American poverty. And their lives were made all the harder as they struggled to care for her ailing mother, who was working tirelessly to help them all gain a foothold in their new land.

Fei-Fei’s adolescent knack for physics endured, however, and positioned her to make a crucial contribution to the breakthrough we now call AI, placing her at the center of a global transformation. Over the last decades, her work has brought her face-to-face with the extraordinary possibilities—and the extraordinary dangers—of the technology she loves.

The Worlds I See is a story of science in the first person, documenting one of the century’s defining moments from the inside. It provides a riveting story of a scientist at work and a thrillingly clear explanation of what artificial intelligence actually is—and how it came to be. Emotionally raw and intellectually uncompromising, this book is a testament not only to the passion required for even the most technical scholarship but also to the curiosity forever at its heart.

Dominer "les quatre parties du monde" : telle était l'ambition de la Monarchie catholique (1580-1640). Pour imposer leur présence, Espagnols et Portugais apprennent à maîtriser des milieux inconnus, tandis que du Mexique au Japon, du Brésil aux côtes africaines, de Goa aux Philippines, des peuples sont confrontés à des formes de pensée et de pouvoir qui leur sont totalement étrangers. Brassage des êtres ou résistance des traditions locales à la domination ibérique : la terre se mondialise. En nous conviant à un vaste tour du monde, Serge Gruzinski montre comment le passé permet de comprendre ce qui se joue depuis des siècles entre occidentalisation, métissages et mondialisation

A blueprint for a better future that offers a unified theory of human behavior, culture, and society.
Playing on the phrase “a theory of everything” from physics, Michael Muthukrishna’s ambitious, original, and deeply hopeful book A Theory of Everyone draws on the most recent research from across the sciences, humanities, and the emerging field of cultural evolution to paint a panoramic picture of who we are and what exactly makes human beings different from all other forms of life on the planet.
Muthukrishna argues that it is our unique ability to create culture, a shared body of knowledge, skills, and experience passed on from generation to generation, that has enabled our current dominance. But it is only by understanding and applying the laws of life—the need for energy, innovation, cooperation, and evolution—that we can solve the practical and existential challenges we face as a species. A Theory of Everyone attempts to provide solutions for the most pressing problems of our collective future, such as polarization, inequality, the “great stagnation” in productivity, and the energy crisis.
Casting a bold and wide net, Muthukrishna’s book is a must-read for anyone interested in a better future for ourselves and for generations to come.

"If you are a young designer entering or contemplating entering the UX field this is a canonical book. If you are an organization that really needs to start grokking UX this book is also for you. " -- Chris Bernard, User Experience Evangelist, Microsoft User experience design is the discipline of creating a useful and usable Web site or application--one that's easily navigated and meets the needs of both the site owner and its users. But there's a lot more to successful UX design than knowing the latest Web technologies or design trends: It takes diplomacy, project management skills, and business savvy. That's where this book comes in. Authors Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler show you how to integrate UX principles into your project from start to finish. * Understand the various roles in UX design, identify stakeholders, and enlist their support * Obtain consensus from your team on project objectives * Define the scope of your project and avoid mission creep * Conduct user research and document your findings * Understand and communicate user behavior with personas * Design and prototype your application or site * Make your product findable with search engine optimization * Plan for development, product rollout, and ongoing quality assurance

Donald Norman's best-selling plea for user-friendly design, with more than 175,000 copies sold to date, is now a Basic paperback.
First, businesses discovered quality as a key competitive edge; next came service. Now, Donald A. Norman, former Director of the Institute for Cognitive Science at the University of California, reveals how smart design is the new competitive frontier. The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how--and why--some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.

《论家用电器》（2015年2月出版）是首都师范大学汪民安教授的一部文化理论的随笔集。本文将家用电器作为传记的对象，探讨了洗衣机、电冰箱、手机、电视机等电器在家庭生活中所展现的空间权力结构。作者以法国思想随笔的文章风格，运用娴熟的理论工具，层层解剖，既充满了洞见，也糅合了作者的当下生活感受与情怀，使读者获得极大的阅读乐趣。

「六四是墳墓，埋葬了三十四歲的我！」
一九八九年，劉曉波因參與了「六．四」天安門學生運動被捕，遭羈押年餘後，寫下《悔罪書》而獲釋。但重獲自由並未讓這位溫厚的知識分子心靈平靜，「各種問號折磨著我，儘管在表面上我的生活是平靜的，但內心深處的掙扎一刻也未停止過。而最根本的問題是：我是否有足夠的勇氣和智慧面對自己，為自己的所作所為、所思所想負責？」面對亡靈、面對獄中人、面對中國內外關於六四的彌天大謊、面對自己的六四經歷和內心世界，劉曉波別無選擇，「自白」是他走出心獄的唯一出路。
在書中，他試圖揭開「六．四」事件的所有謊言與矛盾！他嚴厲地自我剖析、究責與悔罪，那內心的磨難與激烈拉扯，令人揪心；那虛妄與真誠之間的反覆辯證，令人迷惘；他毫不留情地鄙視知識菁英的無能、批判學生領袖的爭權與功利，給讀者提供了看待學運的另一種思考視角；他那通透赤裸、痛苦撕裂的直白描述，刻畫出迄今最翔實、最撼人心弦的一部六四回憶錄與懺悔錄。
「從一九八九年四月二十六日在紐約的登機回家，到一九八九年六月六日深夜十一時左右被捕入獄，算算只有四十九天的時間，但這時間卻是我三十四歲生涯中最驚心動魄的日子，每每想起，覺得那麼漫長而幽深。它是我靈魂中的一道無法癒合的傷口，歲月不但無法抹去它，反而更加鮮淋。我的生命彷彿永遠停滯在這段時間中，它是墳墓，埋葬了三十四歲的我，誕生了不知自己為何物的我。」-------劉曉波
本書原名為：末日倖存者的獨白：關於我和「六四」
2017年8月11日 二版一刷

究竟是什麼樣的因由，讓書中的女性跨出人生既定道路，成為鎂光燈下面對龐大國家機器的鬥士？甚至留下迥異於男性運動者、令世人難忘的表現？
　　
　　有人屬於自我覺醒，有人是被迫成長，有人則是順著原本該生長的樣貌而走到命定的位置。她們在各種社會運動中有了與男人的橫衝直撞不同的形象，她們的聲音也因為稀罕而珍貴。
　　
　　「當你站在當事人的角度，從他的眼睛裡，看見他的悲哀，這種個體被摧毀的命運就難以再被當作一個繁榮背景下的雜音而忽略不計。」──本書作者趙思樂
　　
　　劉曉波同學、著名學者／艾曉明──
　　她說自己完全不是一個具有政治家思維的人，她是一個學者、紀錄片導演，她參與運動，關心的只是問題、故事和人。她眼睛裡閃著光，說著：「這是中國人的靈魂，儘管此刻是失魂落魄的……」
　　
　　懷有作家夢的下崗女工／寇延丁──
　　她向公安局副局長撂下狠話，自己現在是拿著全世界朋友捐的錢給川震的孩子來治病，「你只要讓我把事情做得下去，我怎麼著都可以委曲求全，要是讓我做不下去，非得讓我碎個瓶子踢個響，我就讓全世界都是玻璃碴子！」
　　
　　北京市人大公務員、退休大媽包租婆／王荔蕻──
　　她在現場原本是不必過多露面做事的，然而負責喊口號的人喊一個字拖三下，她對這種節奏忍無可忍，自己拿過擴音器喇叭就喊了起來，中氣十足的高音壓過了上百人的嘈雜。數部攝影機對著她拍攝，記錄下為她這一生帶來最多光榮和苦難的一幕。
　　
　　過氣網紅、性工作者／葉海燕──
　　她來到小學門口，舉起一張大紙，上面寫著：「校長，開房找我，放過小學生！」標語下面還有聯繫電話「12338」，這是全國婦聯官方電話。她的抗爭訴求與社會主流發生前所未有的結合，再一次擊中了整個網路的興奮點。
　　
　　都市白領、律師妻子／王峭嶺等──
　　她們背著紅色水桶，桶上用白色膠帶貼出字樣：「和平，支持你」、「全璋，相信你」，並露出得意笑容的照片上傳到社交網路。七零九家屬團的行動透過手機影像散播，這種歡樂風格一發不可收拾，她們的樂觀更讓人心疼她們的遭遇。
　　
　　＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
　　
　　絕大多數底層打拼者在摸爬滾打中沒沒無聞度過一生，但在急速變遷的時代裡，有些人的個人特質會突然與時代產生共振，從而脫離既定的人生軌道。本書所描述的從事社會運動的女性，就是此類敘述的典型例子。中國女性向來在社會運動中扮演二線的角色，究竟是什麼樣的因由，讓書中的女性跨出人生既定道路，成為鎂光燈下面對龐大國家機器的鬥士？甚至留下迥異於男性運動者、令世人難忘的表現？
　　
　　本書描寫女性主要為五組人：她們分別是代表八零年代知識分子、劉曉波同屆博士生的艾曉明；以自組川震NGO為開端、懷有作家夢的下崗女工寇延丁；以俠氣集結網路人馬、以行動快閃為號召的包租婆王荔蕻；以驚人作風從網紅跨界社運、並聯結女權NGO的葉海燕；以及以王峭嶺為核心、「七零九大抓捕」中被捕律師們的妻子團。
　　
　　這些中國女性分別在不同的時間點投身社會運動，有人屬於自我覺醒（如艾曉明、寇延丁），有人是被迫成長（如七零九律師團的妻子們），有人則是順著原本該生長的樣貌而走到命定的位置（如王荔蕻、葉海燕）。透過同樣身為女性的作者之筆，她們在各種社會運動中有了與男人的橫衝直撞不同的形象，她們的聲音也因為稀罕而珍貴。
　　
　　她們的故事在作者筆下，成為社會運動中最獨特的一頁。「上部：野蠻生長」將每個女性抗爭者的命運和她們所屬的運動路徑都寫到最高點，並引入外界熟知的男性運動者的故事，展現社會運動的全貌並相互對照；「下部：困獸猶鬥」描寫政府打壓各種維權組織與個體，及其後男性角色勢弱與女性角色上升的關係。換句話說，本書即以中國女性在公民覺醒道路上的轉變為觀察重點，橫向記錄五組分屬社會各階層女性的人事變化，並在其所屬時代背景下、綜向爬梳中國三十年來的社會運動從野火之苗、風風火火到被幾近斬草除根的歷史脈絡。
　　
　　而作者趙思樂在書中是採訪者的角色、但她同時也與書中女性一樣，曾經與公共部門有過交手經驗，因此她的自身經歷很容易與筆下各角色的生命歷程、當下人際網絡串連。本書的報導寫作，一部分可看見記者的近距離採訪、另一部分也能看見作者與受訪者們互動而產生的自省、甚至是改變自我的影響。
　　
　　本書的開章是以善拍紀錄片的艾曉明正躲避一場追捕開始，最終章也以艾曉明在雪地裡拍攝勞改農場的血淚故事為收尾，對比開場的驚心動魄、收尾在冰天雪地的荒地裡，作者筆下的人物更顯滄桑、而出現在鏡頭裡的故事卻永遠不被遺忘。

作者簡介

趙思樂

　　廣州人，畢業於南京大學。長期為港台媒體撰寫中國時政與民間運動相關深度報導及專欄。她持續關注中國女性與抗爭議題，其文章曾五次獲得亞洲區域人權新聞報導的最高榮譽──「人權新聞獎」肯定，並於二○一七年獲得亞洲地區最高新聞獎項——亞洲出版業協會「卓越新聞獎」。

"Absolutely riveting . . . Essential reading for foodies, java-junkies, anthropologists, and anyone else interested in funny, sardonically told adventure stories."
—Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential


Full of humor and historical insights, The Devil’s Cup is not only ahistory of coffee, but a travelogue of a risk-taking brew-seeker.

In this captivating book, Stewart Lee Allen treks three-quarters of the way around the world on a caffeinated quest to answer these profound questions: Did the advent of coffee give birth to an enlightened western civilization? Is coffee the substance that drives history? From the cliffhanging villages of Southern Yemen, where coffee beans were first cultivated eight hundred years ago, to a cavernous coffeehouse in Calcutta, the drinking spot for two of India’s Nobel Prize winners . . . from Parisian salons and cafés where the French Revolution was born, to the roadside diners and chain restaurants of the good ol’ USA, where something resembling brown water passes for coffee, Allen wittily proves that the world was wired long before the Internet. And those who deny the power of coffee (namely tea drinkers) do so at their own peril.