Glory

　　布克獎最終決選名單
　　「天才之作」《紐約時報》
 
　　二次入圍布克獎作者NoViolet Bulawayo，以執政40多年的著名辛巴威獨裁前總統穆格比為原型，講述一個國家內部如何累積對權力之不滿，並以無敵的樂觀態度將上位者完全推翻。打造《動物農莊》般的國度，各種動物鳴聲如同人民呢喃，帶領讀者一同體驗這動蕩不安的「虛擬」社會。
 
　　Old Horse，來自非洲國家Jidada，一個腐敗政權的上位者，連帶其政權可以說是分崩離析的狀態：大祭司密友（一隻豬），只會空洞地反覆唱著他對於這隻老馬的頌歌；上將（一隻大狗）則全力支持他的強硬政策；第一夫人（驢子）則對外頭人民的抗議不聞不問。而當這隻老馬意外過世，兒子小馬上任後，目中無人、擋我者死的態度，更讓平民動物們累積已久的不滿開始騷動，應和右翼派對政府失望的聲音。而這之中，一位山羊作家－Destiny，將帶領革命列車啟動，成為騷動混亂中的核心人物⋯⋯(文／博客來外文館)

　　“Manifoldly clever…brilliant… ‘Glory’ is its own vivid world, drawn from its own folklore. This is a satire with sharper teeth, angrier, and also very, very funny.” —Violet Kupersmith, The New York Times Book Review

　　“Genius.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds

　　From the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names, an exhilarating novel about the fall of an oppressive regime, and the chaos and opportunity that rise in its wake.

　　NoViolet Bulawayo’s bold new novel follows the fall of the Old Horse, the long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the path to true liberation. Inspired by the unexpected fall by coup in November 2017 of Robert G. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president of nearly four decades, Glory shows a country’s imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices that unveil the ruthlessness required to uphold the illusion of absolute power and the imagination and bulletproof optimism to overthrow it completely. By immersing readers in the daily lives of a population in upheaval, Bulawayo reveals the dazzling life force and irresistible wit that lie barely concealed beneath the surface of seemingly bleak circumstances.

　　And at the center of this tumult is Destiny, a young goat who returns to Jidada to bear witness to revolution—and to recount the unofficial history and the potential legacy of the females who have quietly pulled the strings here. The animal kingdom—its connection to our primal responses and its resonance in the mythology, folktales, and fairy tales that define cultures the world over—unmasks the surreality of contemporary global politics to help us understand our world more clearly, even as Bulawayo plucks us right out of it.

　　Although Zimbabwe is the immediate inspiration for this thrilling story, Glory was written in a time of global clamor, with resistance movements across the world challenging different forms of oppression. Thus it often feels like Bulawayo captures several places in one blockbuster allegory, crystallizing a turning point in history with the texture and nuance that only the greatest fiction can.