内容简介

A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles of genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian lore of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profund as it is playful. Now in his new novel, David Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity.

Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.

But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.

作者简介

David Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England, raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, and educated at the University of Kent, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature. He lived for a year in Sicily, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before return...

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精彩摘录

我最近的历险让我变得很像个哲人，特别是在晚上，我什么也听不到，除了溪流用无尽的从容把巨砾磨成小卵石的声音。我的思绪就这样流淌着。我学着洞察历史中的活动，并构想出决定文明世界兴衰的规则，系统地阐释这些活动。但是，我的观点正相反：历史不容纳规则，只有结果。什么促成了结果的产生？恶行和善行。什么促成了行为？信念。在我们的头脑和头脑的镜子——现实世界里，信念既是奖品又是战场。如果我们相信人类是不同族群组成的梯子，是充满对抗、剥削和兽行的大剧场，这样的人类肯定就会形成，而且历史上的赫劳克斯们、布诺海夫们和古斯们就会占上风。你和我、有钱的、有权的、幸运的人都活在这个世界里。只要我们的幸运一直不断，就不会生活得很糟糕。即便是我们的良心不安又能怎样呢？为什么要破坏我们的种族、我们的武装舰船、我们的传统和我们继承的统治地位呢？为什么要反对“自然的”（哦，真是个狡辩的词！）万物的秩序呢？为什么？因为：有一天，一个完全以捕食其他动物为生的世界也会把自己吃掉。是的，魔鬼会带走排在最后面的那个人，直到最前面的一个就是最后一个为止。就个人而言，自私让灵魂丑陋；对人类来说，自私就意味着消亡。在我们本性里这样的劫数是否命中注定？如果我们相信人类可能竭尽全力超越这一切，如果我们相信多样的种族和宗教信仰也能像孤儿和平地分享石栗树一样和平地分享这个世界，如果我们相信领导者恪守公正、制止暴力并对权利负责、公平合理地分享陆地和海洋的财富，这样的世界就会实现。我不会受骗。所有的世界中，这是最难实现的。数代人历经苦难取得的进步很可能因为一个目光短浅的总统的钢笔或者一个自负的将军的佩剑一挥就不复存在了。致力于打造一个世界的人生是我想让杰克逊继承的，而不是我害怕杰克逊所做的，我觉得...

——引自第486页

　　我梦见自己站在一家瓷器店里，一件件瓷器古董把从地板到远端的天花板间的空隙塞得满满的，以至于稍微动一下肌肉，就会导致几件跌落下来摔成碎片。这样的事情真就发生了，但是没有摔碎的声音，而是一阵令人敬畏的四拍D大调（？）和声，一半大提琴，一半钢片琴。我的手腕把一只明代花瓶从它的基座上碰下来——E降调，所有的弦乐器同时演奏，壮丽、出色、天籁之音。为了再多听些这样的音乐，我故意摔碎了一座牛雕像，然后是一座挤奶女工像，接着是“星期六的孩子”——空气中弥漫着狂欢的弹片，我的头脑里却是超然的平静。啊，如此动听的音乐！一瞥到父亲正在计算打碎东西的总价，笔尖飞快划动着，但是我无法让音乐停下来。我相信只要我能让这音乐成为自己的，就将能成为本世纪最伟大的作曲家。一幅被扔到墙上的巨大的“笑脸骑士”画像引发了一连串砰砰的打击乐。　DreamtIstoodinachinashopsocrowdedfromfloortofar-offceilingwithshelvesofporcelainantiquitiesetc.thatmovingamusclewouldcauseseveraltofallandsmashtobits.Exactlywhathappened,butinsteadofacrashingnoise,anaugustchordrangout,half-cello,half-celeste,Dmajor(?),heldforfourbeats.MywristknockedaMingvaseaffairoffitspedestal—E-flat,wholestringsection,glorious,transcendent,angelswep...

——引自第43页