书名：The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter心是孤独的猎手
难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数760L
作者：Carson McCullers卡森·麦卡勒斯
出版社名称：Penguin Classics
出版时间：2000
语种：英文
ISBN：9780141185224
商品尺寸：12.9 x 2 x 19.8 cm
包装：平装
页数：352
★美国现代文库“20世纪百佳英文小说”
★《时代》杂志1923—2005百佳英文小说
★奥普拉读书俱乐部隆重推荐图书
★美国天才女作家麦卡勒斯，与杜拉斯齐名的“文艺教母”，海明威、福克纳之后，欧美文坛耀眼之星
★从钱钟书到苏童，从21次获诺奖提名的作家格雷厄姆到心理学宗师荣格，从文艺青年到媒体之星奥普拉，无一不为麦卡勒斯笔下的“孤独”所深深着迷

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter《心是孤独的猎手》是麦卡勒斯的首部长篇小说，也是她一举成名的作品和具有震撼力的代表作。书中讲述了一个关于孤独的故事。美国南方小镇，漫长沉闷的八月。一个总是温和微笑的哑巴，午夜的咖啡馆里喝着冰啤酒的人们，黑人对于自由的隐忍与矛盾的苦痛，期望改革的人疯狂绝望却又依然坚定前行的决心……这是一个孤独到极致的故事，深切的爱也无法改变人类终极的孤独。

媒体评论：
麦卡勒斯的艺术魅力好似福克纳笔下的人物住进了梵高的画中。——《纽约时报书评》

《心是孤独的猎手》是一本抒写同情、遗憾和讽刺的传奇之书，形式和事件在小说中完美地结合在了一起。——《弗吉尼亚评论季刊》

在她的作品中，我发现了自赫尔曼·梅尔维尔之后，我们那非诗歌类作品中不再拥有的强韧而高贵的精神。──田纳西·威廉斯，美国剧作家，《欲望号街车》作者

Often cited as one of the great novels of twentieth-century American fiction, Carson McCullers prodigious first novel was published to instant acclaim when she was just twenty-three. Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner of the café where Singer eats every day, a young girl desperate to grow up, an angry socialist drunkard, a frustrated black doctor: each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant, and he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways they could never imagine. Moving, sensitive and deeply humane, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter explores loneliness, the human need for understanding and the search for love.

Review
The greatest prose writer that the South produced ... She has examined the heart of man with an understanding that no other writer can hope to surpass.(Tennessee Williams)

A remarkable book ... [McCullers] writes with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming.
(The New York Times)

Of all the Southern writers, she is the most apt to endure.(Gore Vidal)

Again [McCullers] shows a sort of subterranean and ageless instinct for probing the hidden in mens hearts and minds. (New York Herald-Tribune)
故事发生在20世纪30年代，哑巴辛格与他的哑巴挚友安东尼·帕罗斯一同住在美国中部的一个小镇，安东尼·帕罗斯因为发疯被送到精神病院，辛格受不了孤独而离开他们共同的住处，搬进了镇中心一座破旧的寄宿公寓，一日三餐都在不远处的咖啡馆里解决。

在这座咖啡馆，辛格认识了热爱音乐的“假小子”米克、试图改造社会的杰克、致力于唤醒同胞自我意识的黑人医生科普兰、看似冷漠的咖啡馆老板比夫……这里的人们愿意向温和平静、充满善意的辛格倾诉，期望从他身上寻求慰藉。

小镇中的人们因相似的孤独而相遇，却无力改变那个经济萧条、种族不平等、贫富差距扩大的时代席卷而来的命运……
"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" was Carson McCullers first novel, written in 1940. Set in a small town in the American South, it is the story of a group of people who have little in common except that they are all hopelessly lonely. A young girl, a drunken socialist and a black doctor are drawn to a gentle, sympathetic deaf mute, whose presence changes their lives. This powerful exploration of alienation is both moving and perceptive.

卡森·麦卡勒斯（Carson McCullers），20世纪美国重要的作家之一。1917年2月19日出生于美国佐治亚州哥伦布，17岁去纽约哥伦比亚大学学习，22岁创作《心是孤独的猎手》。一生备受病痛折磨，15岁患风湿热，经历三次中风，29岁瘫痪。1967年9月29日逝世于纽约，时年50岁。卡森·麦卡勒斯著有《伤心咖啡馆之歌》、《心是孤独的猎手》等多部作品，孤独、孤立和疏离的主题始终贯穿在她的所有作品中，并烙刻在她个人生活的各个层面。
Carson McCullerswas born in 1917. She is the critically acclaimed author of several popular novels in the 1940s and 50s, including The Member of the Wedding (1946). Her novels frequently depicted life in small towns of the southeastern United States and were marked by themes of loneliness and spiritual isolation. McCullers suffered from ill health most of her adult life, including a series of strokes that began when she was in her 20s; she died at the age of 50.
IN the town there were two mutes, and they were always together. Early every morning they would come out from the house where they lived and walk arm in arm down the street to work. The two friends were very different. The one who always steered the way was an obese and dreamy Greek. In the summer he would come out wearing a yellow or green polo shirt stuffed sloppily into his trousers in front and hanging loose behind. When it was colder he wore over this a shapeless grey sweater. His face was round and oily, with half-closed eyelids and lips that curved in a gentle, stupid smile. The other mute was tall. His eyes had a quick, intelligent expression. He was always immaculate and very soberly dressed.
Every morning the two friends walked silently together until they reached the main street of the town. Then when they came to a certain fruit and candy store they paused for a moment on the sidewalk outside. The Greek, Spiros Antonapoulos, worked for his cousin, who owned this fruit store. His job was to make candies and sweets, uncrate the fruits, and to keep the place clean. The thin mute, John Singer, nearly always put his hand on his friend’s arm and looked for a second into his face before leaving him. Then after this good-bye Singer crossed the street and walked on alone to the jeweler store where he worked as a silverware engraver.
In the late afternoon the friends would meet again. Singer came back to the fruit store and waited until Antonapoulos was ready to go home. The Greek would be lazily unpacking a case of peaches or melons, or perhaps looking at the funny paper in the kitchen behind the store where he cooked. Before their departure Antonapoulos always opened a paper sack he kept hidden during the day on one of the kitchen shelves. Inside were stored various bits of food he had collected — a piece of fruit, samples of candy, or the butt-end of a liverwurst. Usually before leaving Antonapoulos waddled gently to the glassed case in the front of the store where some meats and cheeses were kept. He glided open the back of the case and his fat hand groped lovingly for some particular dainty inside which he had wanted.