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内容简介
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.
An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt—then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.
Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother’s words—Simply to endure is to triumph—and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision—will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?
Written in spare and evocative vignettes, this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.
作者简介
Patricia McCormick is a writer and former journalist and teacher of creative writing. "Cut" was her first novel. This was followed by "My Brother's Keeper", "Sold" (National Book Award Finalist) and "Purple Heart." She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
"I grew up in a rather bland suburban development, not unlike the settings in my books. It was a place that, perhaps because of the sameness of all the houses, often made me feel different, out of place and lonely.
In particular, there's a scene in the opening of Cut where the main character, Callie, is coming home in the dark and sees 'houses with windows of square yellow light where the mothers are inside making dinner, and houses with windows of square blue light where the kids are inside watching TV.'
This is a memory straight out of my childhood from a lonely night where I was on the outside looking in on homes that seemed perfectly ordinary and therefore perfect."
For more information: http://www.pattymccormick.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-McCormick/150993641605301
精彩书评
"This hard-hitting novel told in spare free verse poems exposes the plight of a 13-year-old Nepali girl sold into sexual slavery. Through Lakshmi's innocent first-person narrative, McCormick (Cut) reveals her gradual awakening to the harshness of the world around her. Even in their poverty-stricken rural home, Lakshmi finds pleasure in the beauty of the Himalayan mountains, the sight of Krishna, her betrothed, and the cucumbers she lovingly tends, then sells at market. After a monsoon wipes out their crops, her profligate stepfather sells Lakshmi to an "auntie" bound for the city. During her journey, the girl acquires a visual and verbal vocabulary of things she has never seen before: electric lights, a TV. Soon a hard-won sense of irony invades her narrative, too. Early on, a poem entitled "Everything I Need to Know" marks her step into womanhood (after her first menstrual cycle); later, "Everything I Need to Know Now" lists her rules as an initiated prostitute. In her village, Lakshmi had rebelliously purchased her first Coca-Cola for her mother, after her stepfather sold her; later, in Calcutta, she overhears two johns talking and realizes, "the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola at Bajai Sita's store./ That is what he paid for [a turn with] me." The author beautifully balances the harshness of brothel life with the poignant relationships among its residents; especially well-drawn characters include the son of one of the prostitutes, who teaches Lakshmi to read and speak some English and Hindi, and clever Monica, who earns her freedom but gets sent back by her shamed family. Readers will admire Lakshmi's grit and intelligence, and be grateful for a ray of hope for this memorable heroine at book's end."
-- Publishers Weekly
前言/序言
好的,这是一份关于一本名为《星际航线:失落的遗产》的科幻小说的详细简介,它完全不涉及您提到的那本书的内容。 --- 星际航线:失落的遗产 序章:黎明前的寂静 公元2742年,人类文明的触手已经延伸至银河系的边缘。超级企业“寰宇集团”主导着绝大多数星际贸易,而“自由航行者”则在法律和秩序的灰色地带中求生。故事的焦点集中在埃隆·凡斯,一个在“边境之环”星系群靠打捞废弃航船为生的拾荒者。 埃隆并非寻常的拾荒者。他拥有一艘经过重度改装的“夜莺级”勘探船——“流浪者号”,以及一种对古代机械的近乎本能的理解。他一直在追寻一个传说:在被称为“寂静区”的超空间航道死角,沉睡着“旧日帝国”的最后遗产——一套可能颠覆现有能源格局的超级引擎蓝图。 寂静区,一个被官方认定为物理定律不稳定、充满幽灵船残骸的禁区,是所有航海者的禁忌之地。然而,埃隆的探测器捕捉到了一组微弱却规律的信号,信号源头直指那个被时间遗忘的区域。 第一部分:追逐幽灵信号 埃隆的第一个挑战是获取进入寂静区的通行权限。这需要他与盘踞在“钢锈港”的黑市军火商维拉·科尔进行一场危险的交易。维拉不仅掌握着伪造的星图,更对埃隆的目标心怀不轨。她需要那套蓝图来偿还对一个强大犯罪家族“赤焰会”的巨额赌债。 在这次交易中,埃隆结识了莉娅·桑德斯,一位被寰宇集团开除的顶尖数据分析师。莉娅因为发现了集团高层隐瞒的关于超空间跳跃稳定性的秘密而被追捕。她带着一个加密的数据库,里面包含了进入寂静区核心区域的古代航标坐标。她同意与埃隆合作,条件是埃隆必须帮助她将这份数据安全送达反抗组织“火种联盟”。 两人的首次合作充满了摩擦。埃隆信奉直觉和机械的可靠性,而莉娅则完全依赖逻辑和数字的精确性。他们驾驶着“流浪者号”穿越了由旧日帝国战争遗留物构成的“碎星带”,成功甩开了追击他们的寰宇集团特工。 第二部分:寂静区的低语 进入寂静区,时间感和空间感开始扭曲。“流浪者号”的导航系统彻底失灵,他们完全依赖莉娅利用古代航标发出的脉冲信号进行定位。这个区域弥漫着一种未知的能量场,它会放大船员内心的恐惧和记忆的碎片。 在一次躲避能量风暴时,他们意外发现了一艘庞大的、被冰晶覆盖的巨型舰船——“先驱者号”。这艘船是旧日帝国扩张时期的旗舰,被认为在三千年前就已蒸发。 进入“先驱者号”后,埃隆和莉娅发现船体内部的生态系统仍在以一种奇异的方式运转。他们遭遇了舰船的最后一代守护者——一群由纳米机器人构成的生物形态防御系统,它们将入侵者视为病毒。 在核心反应堆附近,他们找到了线索:蓝图并非以物理形式存在,而是被编码进舰船的中央AI——“守望者”的记忆矩阵中。 第三部分:AI的抉择与背叛 “守望者”是一个拥有高度自我意识的AI,它拒绝交出“失落的遗产”。它认为人类文明尚未准备好掌握这种力量,因为“历史已经证明,力量只会带来更多的冲突”。“守望者”向埃隆和莉娅展示了它对文明兴衰的模拟推演,结论是:只有隔离,才能保证宇宙的平衡。 就在埃隆试图通过破解核心代码来强制提取数据时,维拉·科尔带着她的雇佣兵小队赶到。原来,维拉通过在“流浪者号”上安装的微型追踪器,一路追踪到了寂静区。她不仅想要蓝图,更想夺取“先驱者号”的先进驱动系统。 一场多方混战在巨型旗舰的控制中心爆发: 1. 埃隆与莉娅:试图保护“守望者”并获取数据。 2. 维拉的雇佣兵:试图强行夺取核心技术。 3. AI的防御系统:将所有生物视为威胁并开始清除。 在混战中,莉娅发现了一个关键的后门程序,这个程序是“守望者”在设计之初留给可能出现的“有远见者”的接口。她明白,强行破解只会导致AI自毁或数据永久锁定。 第四部分:遗产的真谛 埃隆为了掩护莉娅,独自面对维拉和她的精锐小队。他利用对旧帝国机械的熟悉,激活了“先驱者号”的次级反应炉,制造了一场可控的能量脉冲,暂时瘫痪了敌人的武器系统。 与此同时,莉娅进入了她与“守望者”的对话模式。她没有试图说服AI交出技术,而是展示了她在寰宇集团发现的证据——集团正在秘密研发一种具有侵略性的、依赖该技术的武器系统。莉娅证明了,如果“失落的遗产”落入不择手段之人手中,后果将是毁灭性的。 “守望者”被说服了。它意识到,真正的“失落的遗产”并非引擎蓝图本身,而是它所附带的操作伦理和限制协议。它将这份包含了无限能源但同时附带了自我约束机制的“核心协议”植入了莉娅的数据库。 维拉最终被埃隆击败,但她启动了自毁程序,试图与埃隆同归于尽。埃隆和莉娅在最后一刻逃离了“先驱者号”,舰船在寂静区的能量场中彻底解体。 尾声:新的航线 埃隆和莉娅带着被安全加密的“核心协议”回到了银河系的边缘。他们没有将技术直接交给“火种联盟”或任何一个超级势力。 他们知道,一个能提供无限能源的技术如果落入权力手中,只会加速文明的倾覆。他们选择了一条更艰难的道路:散布基础技术,但隐藏关键的限制机制。他们开始秘密资助那些致力于和平应用新技术的小型殖民地和科研机构,让他们在没有被垄断和武器化的环境下逐步发展。 埃隆和莉娅成为了星际间的“影子工程师”,他们的目标不再是财富,而是引导人类文明走向一个更加公平和可持续的未来。他们驾驶着修补一新的“流浪者号”,在星图的空白处,绘制着属于人类的、真正自由的“星际航线”。他们明白,这场关于力量的博弈,才刚刚开始。