曼．布克獎得主--麥可．翁達傑，超越《英倫情人》巔峰新作


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「貓桌」－距離船長最遠的桌子。「我」被分配在這裡。
這是一個純真的故事。一名11歲少年的海上旅桯。
貓桌無關緊要，沒有需要恐懼，需要解開的謎。
因為早在成年以前，我們就長成大人了。

「如《頑童歷險記》海上版。」

一九五○年代初，來自斯里蘭卡可倫坡的十一歲男孩麥可登上一艘開往英格蘭的船，母親正在大洋對岸等他。上船後的餐廳裡，他被分配在「貓桌」──距離船長最遠的桌子──象徵船上最「沒地位」的一群人。廿一天的海上航程中，他和同桌兩名同齡男孩成為至交。

隨著船隻航過印度洋，穿過蘇伊士運河，駛進地中海，幾個男孩也經歷一個又一個冒險，像被釋放的水銀般橫衝直撞。船上有一座犬舍和一座熱帶植物園，乘客更是形形色色，包括行蹤飄忽的表姊愛蜜麗，籠罩陰影的藍斯葛提小姐，最令男孩們好奇的是，每天深夜從艙底出來放風，戴著手銬腳鐐的囚犯。他的罪行與命運帶有一個令人驚愕的祕密，讓他們一輩子揮之不去。

書中隨著敘述者在艙室間移動，在當時歷險和成年後生活點滴間往復穿梭，說出一個又一個令人著迷的故事──時而辛辣尖銳，時而震撼人心──童年時代最神奇的，經常是最禁忌的，翁達傑是說故事的能手，藉由一生一次的海上冒險之旅，意外展開延續一生的回憶。


In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the “cat’s table”—as far from the Captain’s Table as can be—with a ragtag group of “insignificant” adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin.

As the ship crosses the Indian Ocean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: they are first exposed to the magical worlds of jazz, women, and literature by their eccentric fellow travelers, and together they spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever.

By turns poignant and electrifying, The Cat’s Table is a spellbinding story about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood, and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.