2016年曼布克奖短名单公布
Man Booker shortlist 2016: tiny Scottish imprint sees off publishing giants
Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet’s story of murder in a 19th-century crofting community has beaten novels by some of literature’s biggest names to make the shortlist for the , a list that judges said “showed courage and a willingness to take risks”.
苏格兰作家格雷姆·麦克雷·伯内特的谋杀小说击败文坛大咖入围曼布克奖短名单，评选者称这一名单“体现出冒险的勇气和意愿”，小说发生在19世纪苏格兰小佃农社会。
The six shortlisted books tackle some grim subjects – from a Swiftian satire about a black man reintroducing slavery in Los Angeles to a bleak and depressing exploration of masculinity and the state of contemporary Europe.
六部入围的作品触及了某些残酷的主题，斯威夫特式的讽刺文讲述了黑人在洛杉矶再为人奴以及对当代欧洲男子气概和状态的无望、沮丧的探究。
This year’s chair of judges, the historian Amanda Foreman, admitted that they could be seen as “very difficult, challenging and upsetting”. But crucially, she said, each one was “transporting for the reader”.
今年的评委会主席、历史学家阿曼达·弗尔曼承认作品“非常艰深，挑战人心，令人不安”，但她认为更关键地是，每部小说都“令读者欣喜若狂”。
transport: To cause to feel strong emotion, especially joy; carry away; enrapture.
Burnet’s His Bloody Project– published by Contraband, the crime fiction imprint of the tiny independent Scottish press Saraband – is one of the more surprising contenders for this year’s £50,000 prize. Although it is billed as crime fiction, judges said it was a long way from generic thrillers.
伯内特的《他的血腥计划》由苏格兰独立出版社Saraband的犯罪小说系列Contraband出版，该书是竞争今年5万镑奖金的黑马之一。尽管被标为犯罪小说，评委会表示它与一般的惊悚小说大不相同。
The author himself told the Guardian that he felt his book was a novel about a crime, rather than a crime novel. “I’d say it is primarily about character and setting, but that is not to dissociate myself from the crime fiction world,” Burnet said.
作者自己对《卫报》说，他认为作品是一部关于犯罪的小说，而并非犯罪小说。“我想说更主要的是人物和场景，但那不会让我自己脱离犯罪小说的世界。”
He said he was thrilled and surprised to be shortlisted: “There is a certain Scottish way of preparing yourself for disappointment in advance, a coping strategy born out of many years of watching our football team.”
他说入围短名单让他相当吃惊。“苏格兰人有种办法让自己提前做好失望的准备，这是看我们足球队比赛多年培养出来的应对策略。”
But the news was still sinking in. “When you see Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Rankin and Val McDermid are tweeting their congratulations, you begin to feel it is quite a big deal,” he said.
但消息还是受用的。“你看到尼古拉·斯特金、伊恩·兰金和薇儿·麦克德米德发推文祝贺，你开始感觉这挺了不起的。”
The judges overlooked major writers on the longlist, including Nobel laureate JM Coetzee, Costa winner AL Kennedy and Pulitzer winner Elizabeth Strout, to choose titles that also included a debut novel from the American writer Ottessa Moshfegh, who at 35 is the youngest author on the shortlist for her psychological thriller .
评委会忽略了长名单中的大牌作家，包括诺贝尔奖得主库切、科斯塔奖得主A·L·肯尼迪和普利策奖得主伊丽莎白·斯特劳特，评委会选择了美国作家奥特莎·墨什费的处女作、心理惊悚小说《艾琳》，年仅35岁的她是入围短名单的最年轻作者。
Fellow American author Paul Beatty secures a place for his biting satire about a man who tries to reintroduce slavery and segregate the local high school, .
同为美国作家的保罗·比蒂榜上有名，他辛辣的讽刺小说《背叛者》讲述了一个男子试图重搞奴隶制，在当地高中里推行种族隔离的故事。
While it may upset some with its bad language and liberal use of the n-word, judge and poet David Harsent said the language was indispensable: “It is part of the music of the book. What he is doing requires those speech rhythms.”
尽管作品可能因为脏话和随意使用“黑鬼”让部分人恼怒，评委和诗人大卫·哈森特表示语言是不可或缺的。“这是作品音乐的一部分。他要表达的东西需要这种语言节奏。”
Another of the judges, the actor Olivia Williams, called The Sellout “an eccentric mix of Swiftian satire and observational humour worthy of Richard Pryor.” She added: “I was banned from reading in bed by my husband because I was laughing so much.”
另外一个评委、演员奥莉维亚·威廉姆斯称《背叛者》是“斯威夫特式的讽刺与理查德·普莱尔幽默表演的怪异混合”。她还说：“我丈夫不准我在床上读，因为我笑得太凶了。”
译注：理查德·普莱尔，美国黑人喜剧演员。
The Sellout is published by independent press Oneworld, which
《背叛者》由独立出版社Oneworld出版，去年马龙·詹姆斯的《七种谋杀简史》也是该出版社出版。
British author Deborah Levy, who was shortlisted for the Booker in 2012 for Swimming Home, makes the cut for , an examination of female rage, sexuality and the sometimes toxic bond between mother and daughter.
2012年以《游泳回家》入围短名单的英国作家黛博拉•利维再次以《热牛奶》杀入名单，作品考察了女性的狂怒和性以及母女间有时有害的关系。
It was well received by critics: , called it “a powerful novel of the interior life” with “a transfixing gaze and a terrible sting that burns long after the final page is turned”.
评论家喜欢这部作品，《观察家》的艾丽卡•瓦格纳称作品“具有感染力的描写内心生活的小说”，“翻过最后一页令人目瞪口呆和深深的刺痛感久久萦绕不散”。
The Canadian-born British writer David Szalay is on the list with , described by judge Jon Day as being “brilliantly depressing and endlessly engrossing. It is a wry, important and timely novel about masculinity and the state of contemporary Europe – a post-Brexit novel for our time.”
出生于加拿大的英国作家大卫·邵洛伊的《所有人都是》入围名单，评委乔恩•戴称作品“令人心情无比沉重，却引人入胜。它是有关当代欧洲男子气概和状态的一部幽默、重要且及时的小说，我们这个退欧时代的小说。”
Some have questioned whether Szalay’s book is a novel, and is in fact a collection of nine short stories – but Day is in no doubt: “It is obviously a novel. The experience of reading it is utterly dependent on the whole.”
有人质疑邵洛伊的作品算不上小说，事实上不过是九个短故事的合集，但戴认为毋庸置疑：“这显然是一部小说，阅读体验全然建立在作品整体之上。”
The shortlist is completed by Canadian Madeleine Thien’s , in which a girl and her mother invite a young woman – who has fled China – into their home.
短名单还包括加拿大人玛德莲·邓的《不要说我们一无所有》，作品中一个女孩和母亲邀请一个从中国逃出来的年轻女人到家里来。
Foreman said the novels this year were “innovative, bold, courageous” and took great risks: “They show us that the artform is not being nostalgic, it is not being held back by some vision of what it used to be. For something like literary fiction to be alive and vigorous and healthy, it needs to be continually reinventing itself and be pushing those boundaries – and this is what we’ve seen in 2016.”
弗尔曼认为今年的小说“创新、大胆、有勇气”，这种选择冒着巨大的风险。“作品表明这种艺术形式不是怀旧的，没有被其过去所是的某种视野所桎梏。要让文学小说生机勃勃，这需要不断自我革新，推动那些边界，我们2016年看到了这些。”
Judges baulked at suggestions that the six books were full of people it was hard to sympathise or empathise with. “This wasn’t the damaged people panel,” said Harsent.
评委们否认六部小说中的人物让人难以感同身受，加以同情。“这并不是受害者小组。”
baulk at: or balk at. to resist and object to something
At bookseller Foyles, web editor Frances Gertler welcomed what she called an “excitingly wide-open shortlist”, which continues the prize’s “trend towards new faces”.
书商Foyles的网络编辑弗兰西斯·葛特勒对“涉猎广泛的短名单”表示欢迎，她认为这将让该奖“容纳新面孔”。
Levy, said Gertler, is the “only well-known author left” in the running.
葛特勒说，利维是竞选者中“唯一剩下的一位知名作家”。
“Burnet’s historical crime thriller His Bloody Project would be a popular and accessible win for a genre that is often overlooked for this prize,” she added.
“伯内特的历史犯罪惊悚小说《他的血腥计划》将众望所归，奖项常常忽视这种体裁。”
“Thien’s sweeping intergenerational account of China’s cultural revolution has an impressive depth and breadth, but the time might just be right for David Szalay’s thoughtful portrait of masculinity.”
“玛德莲·邓对中国文化大革命跨代际的全景叙述既有深度，又有广度，可当下最合适的是大卫·邵洛伊对男子气概的深刻描写。”
Waterstones fiction buyer, Chris White said he felt that “the judges have certainly set out to surprise me this year”.
Waterstones小说商克里斯·怀特表示，他感觉“评委今年要让我吃惊了”。
“Having left off established names such as Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, Rose Tremain and Graham Swift from the longlist, the shortlist is now without the two titles I thought shoo-ins: The North Water and My Name Is Lucy Barton. Having said that, it is – as the longlist was – an intriguing and refreshing list which will introduce thousands of new readers to some remarkable works of fiction. If I were to pick a winner I would say it will be between Levy and Szalay but then I’m almost always wrong.”
“短名单淘汰了大名鼎鼎的作家，包括长名单中的伊恩·麦克尤恩、罗斯·特雷梅恩和格拉汉姆•史威夫特，如今的短名单没有两部我认为十拿九稳的作品：《北方的水》和《我的名字是露西巴顿》。虽然这么说，短名单和长名单一样，新奇清爽，让成千上万的新读者接触到某些出色的小说作品。如果让我来挑选获胜者，我会在利维和邵洛伊之间做出选择，但我总是错的。”
The longlist of 13 titles was chosen from 155 submissions. The £50,000 prize is open to writers of any nationality writing originally in English, and published in the UK between October 2015 and September 2016. The winner will be announced on 25 October.
13部长名单作品从155部提交作品中选出，任何国籍作家的英语原创小说，只要在2015年10月到2016年9月出版，都可以获得5万英镑的奖项。10月15日将宣布获奖者。
The 2016 Man Booker shortlist:
(Oneworld)
(Hamish Hamilton)
(Contraband)
(Vintage)
(Vintage)
(Granta)