书名：Small Great Things 渺小的伟大

难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数HL800L

作者：Jodi Picoult

出版社名称：Ballantine Books

出版时间：2017

语种：英文 

ISBN：9780425286029

商品尺寸：17.5 x 3.3 x 10.8 cm

包装：平装

页数：544

如果你是护士，面对一个突然出现呼吸障碍的婴儿，本能驱使你立刻施救，但你的上司刚刚传达了一道禁令，婴儿的父母严禁你触碰这个婴儿。那么此时，你救还是不救？

如果你现在被指控谋杀，你的辩护律师一路披荆斩棘，胜算十足地进入总结陈词阶段，你只需保持沉默即可被无罪释放，那么此刻，你会冒着满盘皆输的风险，说出所有真相吗？又对得起良心的真相吗？ Small Great Things《渺小的伟大》是热销书作家朱迪•皮考特的震撼力作，和她那本畅销小说《姐姐的守护者》一样，本书依旧充满道德争议与灵魂拷问，令人心痛得几乎窒息。朱迪在书中并没有给出简单的答案，而是通过描述医生、护士、律师、法官等每个人物的复杂心理，毫不留情地榨出我们皮袍下面藏着的“小”。 这本书被誉为21世纪的《杀死一只知更鸟》，堪称具有划时代意义的伟大杰作。同名电影由朱莉娅·罗伯茨、维奥拉·戴维斯主演，斯皮尔伯格影业年度巨献。 我们读书是为了更好地理解我们所在的世界，或者仅仅是为某一个故事着迷。Small Great Things《渺小的伟大》就是这样的书，它不仅在出版后迅即登上热销书榜，也是各大媒体评选出的年度好书，更引发全美热议。有人说，这是一本让人从头到尾不停反思的小说。 本书书名取自马丁·路德·金的语录：If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way（我也许不能成就伟业，但我能以伟大的方式做好小事）。希望这本书能给予我们每个平凡之辈以信心和勇气，只要坚持一点点的正义，这个世界就有被改变的可能！媒体评论：“朱迪·皮考特是一位技术娴熟的语言大师，她笔下优美的场景，不仅唤起我们心灵的共鸣，还触碰到我们每一个人具有瑕疵的灵魂。”——《波士顿环球报》 “《渺小的伟大》让人们坐下来审视自己的生活、行为（过去和未来的），思考自己应该如何前行。这是一本神奇的书，不仅因为它呈现了美国以及世界上每天都在发生的事情，更因为它让我们看到了改变的可能。”——《旧金山书评》 “就在我们急需听到这样的声音时，《渺小的伟大》及时将它传达出来。这本书促使我们撕开假面，直视自己的偏见。”——《地铁报》 “每读一页，你都会想知道，接下来发生了什么。朱迪·皮考特的书就是有这样的魔力，这也是她一直蝉联畅销书榜的原因。”——《圣安东尼奥新闻快报》 “历史是由年轻人推动的，他们让美国在法律上更公正、更有同理心、更平等。如果他们让长辈感到不舒服，就该这样。”——美国前总统 奥巴马 “这是一本让人欲罢不能的书，它质疑了我们的固有信念，让我们懂得感同身受。”——美国证券交易委员会前主席阿瑟·莱维特#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • With richly layered characters and a gripping moral dilemma that will lead readers to question everything they know about privilege, power, and race, Small Great Things is the stunning new page-turner from Jodi Picoult.Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene? Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other’s trust, and come to see that what they’ve been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong. With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn’t offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game. Review“Small Great Things is the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written… It will challenge her readers… [and] expand our cultural conversation about race and prejudice.”—The Washington Post  “A gripping courtroom drama… Given the current political climate it is quite prescient and worthwhile… This is a writer who understands her characters inside and out.”—Roxane Gay, The New York Times Book Review “Small Great Things embraces… empathy, hope and humility.”—Newsday “[An] author at the top of her heart-rending game.”—The National “A gripping read about an issue of urgency.”—The Vancouver Sun “A book that needs to be read.”—The Detroit News   “Exciting and fast-paced.”—New York Journal of Books “Powerful… revelations abound.”—The Free Lance-Star  “Picoult has outdone herself.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch   “A courageous and important work.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “I couldn’t put it down. Her best yet!”—New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman   “A compelling, can’t-put-it-down drama with a trademark [Jodi] Picoult twist.”—Good Housekeeping  “Jodi Picoult is never afraid to take on hot topics, and in Small Great Things, she tackles race and discrimination in a way that will grab hold of you and refuse to let you go… This page-turner is perfect for book clubs.”—Popsugar

“这世上很多的罪恶，都来源于多数人对少数人的暴力。”

从小，鲁斯就知道，她和别人不一样。她的皮肤是黑色的，妈妈给白人家庭做保姆，供养姐妹俩读书。鲁斯发奋努力考入医学院，成为一家大医院的妇产科护士。一天，在她给新生儿进行例行检查时，却被上司告知，严禁接触这个婴儿。原来，婴儿的父母信奉白人至上，强烈要求鲁斯（非裔美国人）远离他们的孩子。 第二天，鲁斯到医院加班，在手术休息室里，她发现昨天护理的那个婴儿突然出现呼吸困难。 护士的本能驱使她立刻准备予以急救，但一秒钟之后她犹豫了，她想到了那道禁令，同时阻止她的，还有她内心长久以来对偏见与歧视的愤恨。她没想到的是，更可怕的命运，正躲在背后虎视眈眈……

朱迪·皮考特，美国当代著名热销书作家、小说家。自1992年出版小说以来，其十五部作品无一不持续热销，包括《离别时刻》、《说故事的人》、《姐姐的守护者》、《换心》、《小心轻放的爱》、《19分钟的眼泪》等。每有新作，即迅速登上《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》、亚马逊网站等热销书榜。她常常将小说中的人物置于道德困境之下；面对挑战，真实的人性弱点暴露无遗。这也使得其作品具有强烈的社会话题性，引起广泛争议和探讨。

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five novels, including Small Great Things, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper. She is also the author, with daughter Samantha van Leer, of two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Picoult lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.

The miracle happened on West Seventy-fourth Street, in the home where Mama worked. It was a big brownstone encircled by a wrought-iron fence, and overlooking either side of the ornate door were gargoyles, their granite faces carved from my nightmares. They terrified me, so I didn’t mind the fact that we always entered through the less impressive side door, whose keys Mama kept on a ribbon in her purse.

Mama had been working for Sam Hallowell and his family since before my sister and I were born. You may not have recognized his name, but you would have known him the minute he said hello. He had been the unmistakable voice in the mid-960s who announced before every show: The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC! In 1976, when the miracle happened, he was the network’s head of programming. The doorbell beneath those gargoyles was the famously pitched three-note chime everyone associates with NBC. Sometimes, when I came to work with my mother, I’d sneak outside and push the button and hum along.

The reason we were with Mama that day was because it was a snow day. School was canceled, but we were too little to stay alone in our apartment while Mama went to work—which she did, through snow and sleet and probably also earthquakes and Armageddon. She muttered, stuffing us into our snowsuits and boots, that it didn’t matter if she had to cross a blizzard to do it, but God forbid Ms. Mina had to spread the peanut butter on her own sandwich bread. In fact the only time I remember Mama taking time off work was twenty-five years later, when she had a double hip replacement, generously paid for by the Hallowells. She stayed home for a week, and even after that, when it didn’t quite heal right and she insisted on returning to work, Mina found her tasks to do that kept her off her feet. But when I was little, during school vacations and bouts of fever and snow days like this one, Mama would take us with her on the B train downtown.

Mr. Hallowell was away in California that week, which happened often, and which meant that Ms. Mina and Christina needed Mama even more. So did Rachel and I, but we were better at taking care of ourselves, I suppose, than Ms. Mina was.

When we finally emerged at Seventy-second Street, the world was white. It was not just that Central Park was caught in a snow globe. The faces of the men and women shuddering through the storm to get to work looked nothing like mine, or like my cousins’ or neighbors’.

I had not been into any Manhattan homes except for the Hallowells’, so I didn’t know how extraordinary it was for one family to live, alone, in this huge building. But I remember thinking it made no sense that Rachel and I had to put our snowsuits and boots into the tiny, cramped closet in the kitchen, when there were plenty of empty hooks and open spaces in the main entry, where Christina’s and Ms. Mina’s coats were hanging. Mama tucked away her coat, too, and her lucky scarf—the soft one that smelled like her, and that Rachel and I fought to wear around our house because it felt like petting a guinea pig or a bunny under your fingers.