2021年第21本书 Little Bee by Chris Cleave
因为封面上的New York Times BestSeller, more than one million copies sold, 以及Washington Post的评论，借了这本书；书的前面以及封底大量的推荐和书评，让我在开始阅读之前对本书充满期待：到底是什么样的一本书，让这么多人写好评和推荐？
Little Bee, also known as The Other Hand
情节梗概
全书讲的是两位女主人公的故事。在我看来，全书主要有5位角色，女主人公Little Bee，女主人公Sarah、她的老公Andrew、Sarah的情人Lawrence以及Sarah的儿子Charlie。
两年之前，住在英国的Sara和Andrew的婚姻出现问题，为了拯救婚姻，他们决定去度假，选择了尼日利亚的一个海滩。
Little Bee和姐姐是尼日利亚本地人。她们目睹了外来人抢占当地石油资源所做的一切而遭到追杀。逃到海滩上，Andrew和Sarah仗着自己白人的身份，以为可以救下她们，却被人用枪威胁Andrew砍下一个手指头换一条命。Andrew没有这样做，最后Sara砍下了自己的一根手指头，救了Little Bee的命。
Sarah他们回英国之后，他们因为这件事情更加疏离，Andrew变得很抑郁。
而Little Bee最终亲自“听着”姐姐被强奸后掠待致死，她想办法逃出来上了一艘来英国的船，最后被扣留在移民拘留中心（immigrant detention center）关了两年。一次意外的机会，她从拘留中心被放了出来，但因为她没有身份，在英国属于非法停留，没有任何地方去，唯一留着的是在海滩上捡到的Andrew的驾驶证和名片，上面有地址和电话，所以打电话给了Andrew。
Andrew一直停留在两年之前没有救人的阴影里，患有严重抑郁。当历尽一切艰辛靠着夜晚双腿徒步逃到他家的Little Bee时，他以为自己出现了幻觉，最后上吊自杀。自杀之后，Little Bee和Sarah见面，一起参加了安卓的葬礼，并且Sarah决定留下Little Bee，但Sara的情人Lawrence不同意她留下来。在去伦敦玩的时候，因为Charlie的走失（我个人认为是Lawrence设计的），警察发现了Little Bee。最终Little Bee被遣返。Sarah一同陪着她回来，她想收集很多Little Bee这样的故事，出书，希望能帮到像Little Bee这样的人。
最终，在两年前的海滩上，警察（？有点忘了）最终又追了过来。为了救Sarah和Charlie，Little Bee只好暴露了自己。
最终的结局怎么样？书中并没有明说，留给读者思考。
简评
全书分别从Little Bee和Sarah的视角分章节来展开描述。
Little Bee非常聪明勇敢，她独自一人多次逃亡，在拘留中心的两年隐蔽的很好（裹胸、穿大尺码的衣服、故意不洗澡以变不引起男人的注意）、心理上自我救赎并学会了标准流利的英语，对Sarah和Lawrence的事情她又看的非常开；她很善良，和性格有点怪异的Charlie相处很愉快，决定报答Sarah并在艰难抉择之下仍付诸实际行动。
Sarah是一位有点固执、有着自己想法而又勇敢的女子。两年前，她为了救人自断手指头；两年后，她为了救人，非法收留Little Bee，辞了工作准备写书，并再次将自己和儿子置于危险之中。
两年前沙滩上的相遇，她们的命运便联系在了一起。在小说中，英国和尼日利亚是两个平行世界，一个繁华、充满着文明；另外一个贫穷落后而后充满着暴力和罪恶。书中多次用到In your country,.....; For me and girls from my village, ....。虽然作者声明这个故事是虚构的，但我相信，这样的故事真实的发生着。
你烦恼的生活，在他人眼里可能是遥不可及的天堂。
摘抄
Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl. Everyone would be pleased to see me coming.
Truly, this is the one thing that people from your country and people from my country agree on. They say, That refugee girl is not one of us. That girl does not belong. That girl is a halfling, a child of an unnatural mating, an unfamiliar face in the moon.
Tea is the taste of my land. It's bitter and warm, strong and sharp with memory. It tastes of longing. It tastes of the distance between where you are and where you come from.
In your country, if you are not scared enough already, you can go to watch a horror film... For me and girls from my village, horror is a disease and we are sick with it. ...horror in your country is sth you take a dose of to remind yourself that you are not suffering from it.
It was beautiful-because if this could be done, then perhaps it could be done to everything else that was always escaping and running away and vanishing into sand or mist.
Everything could be made solid again, yes, even the time when l played with Nkiruka in the red dust under the rope swing. In those days I believed such things were possible in your country. I knewthere were large miracles just waiting for me to discover them, if only I could find the center, the source of all these small wonders.
I did not want to tell her what happened, but I had to now. I could not stop talking because
now I had started my story, it wanted to be finished. We cannot choose where to start and stop. Our stories are the tellers of us.
Life is extremely short and you can't dance to current affairs.
No one likes each other, but everyone likes U2.
Trouble is like the ocean. It covers two thirds of the world.
There's no one to ask anyone.
When everyone else is dead, sometimes you think it would be easier to join them. But you have to move on.
To be well in your mind you have first to be free.
Happiness isn't something one can pick up off the shelf. It's something one has to work at.
Trust between adults is a hard-won thing, a fragile thing, so difficult to rebuild.
A dog must be a dog and a wolf must be a wolf.
The sun was lovely. I closed my eyes and let the breeze air brush away the traces of the last few years. One phone call : I realized it was as simple as that. People wonder how they are ever going to change their lives, but really it is frighteningly easy.
回家的火车上看了小部分；最后还书日，在图书馆泡了一整天，看完此书并摘抄
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