[Audiobook] Room - Emma Donoghue

Room: A Novel
[Length:10 hrs and 52 mins] (UNABRIDGED)
by Emma Donoghue
Narrated by Michal Friedman , Ellen Archer , Robert Petkoff , Suzanne Toren

個人喜好★★★★★

難易程度●
Read free chapter extract (PDF)


這有聲書難易程度初級，故事由主角五歲小男孩Jack以天真的口吻敘述他和Ma的生活。之前聽《小王子》有聲書，為兩個配音員一男一女（失事飛行員、小王子、玫瑰）。那永遠的小王子由裝得不太像小孩的大人，有點美中不足。而這套有聲書，Jack時不時唱起兒歌〈Row, row, row your boat〉，模仿起《Alice in Wonderland》裡的對話，配音完整呈現童言童語的童趣可愛。


看到《Room》故事大綱時，可能會以為就像是電視新聞上的綁架囚禁案件的發展情節。但不一樣，它並沒有恐怖也沒有催淚的企圖，故事也不是結束在happily ever after。因為被綁架監禁強暴生子的Ma，心裡的傷害和重新適應社會的能力，絕對不是像Rapunzel長髮公主一樣，逃出高塔擺脫巫婆安心地和王子私奔，然後從此在城堡裡過著幸福快樂的日子。以為「房間」就是整個世界的Jack，他不敢看著人說話，他不知道原來天空真的會下雨（他一直以為那是在電視裡或是外太空才會發生的事情）。Jack和Ma要怎麼樣在這真正的世界活下去？

從房間的世界逃到另一個世界，就像書章節一樣：Presents、Unlying、Dying、After、Living。

喜歡書簡介裡的一句話

五歲的傑克打動了每個人的心，他的聲音、他的遭遇、他的天真、他的幽默、他對媽的愛，使得故事雖然設定在這麼一個令人不安的前提上，仍能處處感受到希望與力量。

Inside：按下圖片連結到Emma Donoghue的官方網站

電視裡的Dora是Jack的最愛，Ma和Jack有這麼一段對話，Ma對Jack說：電視裡面的人物是真的，除了Dora是很多很多圖片構成的，其他的人、地點、場景都是真的。Jack不解地想：Ma為什麼要騙我？

“Lots of TV is made-up pictures – like Dora’s, just a drawing – but the people, the ones with faces that look like you and me, they’re real.”
“Actual humans?”
She nods. “And the places are real too, like farms and forests and airplanes and cities…”
“Nah.” Why is she tricking me? “Where would they fit?”
“Out there,” says Ma. “Outside. ” She jerks her head back.
“Outside Bed Wall?” I stare at it.
“Outside Room.”

*"Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing."

*"The world is always changing brightness and hotness and soundness, I never know how it's going to be the next minute."

*"Goodbye, Room.' I wave up at Skylight. 'Say goodbye," I tell Ma. 'Goodbye, Room.' Ma says it but on mute. I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door."

*Also everywhere I’m looking at kids, adults mostly don’t seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don’t want to actually play with them, they’d rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there’s a small kid crying and the Ma doesn’t even hear.

早上公佈了2011 Orange Prize for Fiction 入選書單(shortlist)，Room - Emma Donoghue的確是大熱門，下面連結入選書單免費章節試閱。接下來想讀《The Tiger's Wife》

Orange Prize for Fiction Awards Ceremony at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre: 8 June 2011

London, 9.30am, 12 April 2011: The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, today announces the 2011 shortlist. Celebrating its sixteenth anniversary this year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world.

• Emma Donoghue (Irish) - Room; Picador; 7th Novel Read free chapter extract (PDF)
• Aminatta Forna (British/Sierra Leonean) - The Memory of Love; Bloomsbury; 2nd Novel Read free chapter extract (PDF)
• Emma Henderson (British) - Grace Williams Says it Loud; Sceptre; 1st Novel Read free chapter extract (PDF)
• Nicole Krauss (American) - Great House; Viking; 3rd Novel Read free chapter extract (PDF)
• Téa Obreht (Serbian/American) - The Tiger’s Wife; Weidenfeld & Nicolson; 1st Novel Read free chapter extract (PDF)
• Kathleen Winter (Canadian) - Annabel; Jonathan Cape; 1st Novel Read free chapter extract (PDF)