A Spark of Light | 拾書所

A Spark of Light

$ 315 元 原價 315

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone.

She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order to save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester, disguised as a patient, who now stands in the crosshairs of the same rage she herself has felt.

A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

One of the most fearless writers of our time, Jodi Picoult tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation . . . and, hopefully, understanding.

 

某個溫暖的秋天,一如往常,中心 (一個婦女生殖健康服務診所)開始營業,為任何進入中心的人提供醫護照顧。後來,在深夜,一個絕望和心煩意亂的持槍歹徒衝進來,開槍,劫持裡面所有人當人質。
 
在趕到現場後,員警人質談判代表休·麥克愛羅伊(Hugh McElroy)設置了警戒線,並開始制定計畫與槍手溝通。當他的手機隨著傳入的短信振動時,他瞥了一眼,驚恐地發現,他十五歲的女兒,雷恩 (Wren) 正在診所內。
 
但是,雷恩並不孤單。
 
她將與一群令人難忘的人物分享她年輕生命的下一個和最緊張的幾個小時:一位護士為了挽救一個受傷婦女的生命而平息自己的恐慌。一個醫生,他的工作不為別的,純粹就是因為他的信仰,並且會發現這種信仰從未像現在這樣經歷過考驗。一個反墮胎的抗議者,偽裝成病人,現在站在她自己感受到的憤怒的狙擊槍十字準星上。
 
一位年輕女子來終止她的懷孕。而那個不安的人自己,發誓要被人聽清楚他的意見並理解他的想法。
 
本書用一個大膽而迷人的敘事結構,這種結構在警匪對峙的時間裡倒敘,這是一個故事,追溯到在這個重大日子將這些非常不同的人帶到同一個地方的原因。
 
作為我們這個時代最無畏的作家之一,喬迪·皮庫爾特 (Jodi Picoult) 在這部扣人心弦、細緻入微的小說中處理了一個複雜的問題。我們如何平衡孕婦的權利和她們腹中胎兒的權利?做個好父母意味著什麼?《A Spark of Light》將激發辯論、對話...並且,希望可以得到理解。

(譯者/劉世明)

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