书名：A God in Ruins生命不息·归来
作者：Kate Atkinson
出版社名称：Black Swan
出版时间：2015
语种：英文
ISBN：9780552776646
商品尺寸：12.7 x 3.4 x 19.8 cm
包装：平装
页数：576

A God in Ruins《生命不息·归来》是英国科斯塔奖年度长篇小说《生命不息》的姊妹篇，是其相伴之作，而不是续集。阿特金森以绝妙的叙事和描绘能力，带领读者在生命的多种可能里探寻人性的真相。本书是阿特金森笔下深刻且富有想象力的作品。

当《生命不息》里的厄苏拉在无限轮回里尝遍生命悲苦，她深爱的弟弟却在二战的弥漫硝烟里，开始了另一种人生……明白你是谁，成为你自己！

媒体评论：
“一个成人世界的优雅童话……在复杂斑斓的人世间，投注一抹满富人性的洞察力。”
——科克斯书评

“阿特金森在这本小说中从另一种角度写出了《生命不息》所反映出来的战争的残酷、野蛮。这本如号角般清亮的散文小说，细节生动，却又浸透着明显的忧郁。无论是坚忍的泰迪、他的妻子、极度自私的女儿，还是受到冷落的孙辈，阿特金森笔下的每一个人物都将在某一刻敲碎读者的心。”——书单

“令人赞叹的小说，我会将其作为Art Olympics所有图书的代表来推荐。仅是其后记就足以获得文学奖。这本书甚至比《生命不息》都要好。”——书商

“如果你爱过阿特金森的《生命不息》，那么现在好运又来了；如果你碰巧是为数不多的没读过此书的几个人之一，那么你现在依旧运气不错——因为阿特金森是玩转文字的大师。她描绘了这样一幅沉静的、令人动容的肖像画——一个男孩，穿行于人生的微小喜悦和痛苦的失意，起起伏伏。”——Marie Claire

WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA NOVEL AWARD AND BESTSELLING LITERARY PAPERBACK OF 2016: NOW INCLUDING AN EXCLUSIVE SAMPLE FROM KATE ATKINSONS NEW NOVEL TRANSCRIPTION (September 2018).
A God in Ruins relates the life of Teddy Todd – would-be poet, heroic World War II bomber pilot, husband, father, and grandfather – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.
This gripping, often deliriously funny yet emotionally devastating book looks at war – that great fall of Man from grace – and the effect it has, not only on those who live through it, but on the lives of the subsequent generations. It is also about the infinite magic of fiction. Few will dispute that it proves once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the most exceptional novelists of our age.

Review
"This is a novel about war and the shadow it casts even over generations who have never known it, but it is also a novel about fiction...this is a novel that cares deeply about its characters and about the purpose of fiction in making sense of our collective past. A God in Ruins, together with its predecessor, is Atkinsons finest work, and confirmation that her genre-defying writing continues to surpise and dazzle." --Stephanie Merritt Observer

"With A God in Ruins she, once again, proves herself to be a writer of considerable talent. Her command of structure is extraordinary...She writes with terrific compassion for her characters...also shows off a brilliantly brittle sense of humour that on several occasions made me laugh out loud...to my mind, A God in Ruins stands as an equally magnificent achievement."
--Matt Cain Independent on Sunday

"Horribly funny...every page has some vividly original phrase...But the tour de force is her treatment of Teddys experience as a bomber pilot, recreated as memorably as the Blitz scenes in Life After Life... nothing can quite account for the imaginative leaps she has made...nailbiting...a really affecting memorial to the huge numbers of bomber crew who died." --Standard

"Better than most fiction youll read this year...Atkinsons prose is as bright as gunfire in the Second World War sections...I cant think of any writer to match her ability to grasp a period in the past. No, not even you, Booker-winning Hilary Mantel." --The Times
托德家族的男孩子泰迪一直深受父母和姐姐厄苏拉的宠爱，他向往诗意的生活，外出游历，希望能做个游吟诗人。二战爆发，他应召入伍，成为皇家空军王牌飞行员。泰迪数次上战场，驾驶轰炸机九死一生。他本已做好随时赴死的准备，然而战争突然结束了，他有了明天，还有明天的明天，可是他的一部分自己再也无法调整去适应未来。内心无限凄惘的他如何才能向明天进发？当生命的多重可能被小心翼翼地捧于手上，究竟什么样的选择才是对的呢？
凯特·阿特金森（Kate Atkinson），英国著名畅销小说作家，先后荣获南岸天空艺术文学奖、科斯塔奖，水石书店年度作者，凭借畅销书《生命不息》红遍全球。《生命不息》被《纽约时报》、《时代周刊》、《华盛顿邮报》等20多家媒体评选为年度图书，也是英美畅销的长篇小说之一。

Kate Atkinson won the Costa (formerly the Whitbread) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her bestselling novels include the four featuring former detective Jackson Brodie which became the BBC television series Case Histories, starring Jason Isaacs. Her 2013 novel Life After Life spent a record number of weeks on top of the bestsellers lists on both sides of the Atlantic, and won the South Bank Sky Arts Literature Prize and the Costa Novel Award, a prize Kate Atkinson won again in 2015 for A God in Ruins. Her new novel is Transcription.
He walked as far as the hedge that signalled the end of the airfield.
The beating of the bounds. The men referred to it as his “daily constitutional” and fretted when he didn’t take it. They were superstitious. Everyone was superstitious.
Beyond the hedge there were bare fields, ploughed over last autumn. He didn’t expect to see the alchemy of spring, to see the dull brown earth change to bright green and then pale gold. A man could count his life in harvests reaped. He had seen enough.
They were surrounded by flat farmland. The farmhouse itself stood square and immoveable over to the left. At night a red light shone from its roof to stop them crashing into it. If they flew over it when they were coming in to land they knew they had overshot and were in trouble.
From here he could see the farmer’s daughter in the yard, feeding the geese. Wasn’t there a nursery rhyme in there somewhere? No, he was thinking of the farmer’s wife, wasn’t he?—cutting off tails with a carving knife. A horrid image. Poor mice, he had thought when he was a boy. Still thought the same now that he was a man. Nursery rhymes were brutal affairs.
He had never met the farmer’s daughter nor did he know her name, but he was disproportionately fond of her. She always waved them off Sometimes she was joined by her father, once or twice by her mother, but the girl’s presence in the farmyard was a constant for every raid.
She caught sight of him now and waved. Rather than return the wave, he saluted her. He imagined she would like that. Of course, from this distance he was just a uniform. She had no idea who he vas. Teddy was just one of the many.
He whistled for the dog.