经济学人61:烟雾氤氲 Wreathed in smoke

 　　Still in Books and Arts; Book Review;New thriller;Wreathed in smoke;

　　文艺；书评；新的惊悚小说;烟雾氤氲;

　　The Golden Scales. By Parker Bilal.

　　《金色的区域》，Parker Bilal于布伦堡著。

　　Parker Bilal whisks the reader straight to the dark heart of Cairo. From the maze¹ of alleys² in the medieval bazaar³ to sand-blown, half-finished luxury housing developments, the Egyptian capital is a menacing place where betrayal swirls⁴ like an army of djinns.

　　Parker Bilal带领读者轻松杀入开罗黑暗的心脏。从中世纪市集迷宫般的巷道，到尘土飞扬，尚未竣工的豪宅工地，埃及首都处处是威胁，背叛则如神魔组成的军队一般盘旋梭巡，神出鬼没。

　　Makana is a poverty-stricken Sudanese political exile living alone on a rickety houseboat on the Nile. He is commissioned by Hanafi, a violent and corrupt⁵ Cairene oligarch, with finding Adil Romario, a star football player. Meanwhile, Liz Markham, the daughter of a British aristocrat⁶, has been tortured and murdered while searching for her daughter, who went missing in Cairo more than 20 years earlier. A former policeman himself, Makana is no naif, but he rapidly finds himself in a perilous⁷ world peopled with Egypt's ultra-rich, Islamic militants⁸ and Russian organised crime. It's a heady mix, but one that Mr Bilal pulls off with verve.

　　Makana，苏丹人士，穷困潦倒，因政治问题被流放他乡，独居于尼罗河上一艘破败不堪的船屋里。他肩负开罗残暴腐朽的独裁者Hanafi的使命，寻找足球明星Adil Romario。同时，英国贵族之女Liz Markham在寻找20余年前在开罗丢失的女儿时被折磨并被杀害了。Makana曾为警察，自然绝不天真，但很快却发现自己身陷人间地狱，周围尽是埃及巨富、伊斯兰好战分子，还有俄罗斯人组织的犯罪。这是个让人眼花缭乱的局面，Bilal先生却用高超的技艺成功驾驭了它。

　　A London-born literary novelist, Parker Bilal (whose real name is Jamal Mahjoub) has also lived in Cairo and Sudan. His prose has a subtlety⁹ that is rarely found in crime novels: an old man “screwed up his face so that all the lines drew together, like a net being drawn¹⁰ in”; metal rods on a construction site are scattered¹¹ like “enormous burned matchsticks”; naked light bulbs on an electrical flex¹² resemble “strange fruits on a vine”. The novel is set in pre-Arab-spring Cairo and the city is vividly¹³ evoked¹⁴, its smells and sounds almost seeping¹⁵ from the pages. Characters such as Okasha, a policeman who is Makana's friend and ally, and Sami, a terrier-like reporter, are nuanced and believable though the story flags a little in the middle—always tricky¹⁶ territory for a crime novel—and there are perhaps one too many meaningful meetings with long looks across the table wreathed in cigarette smoke. In the end there is justice, of a sort. Some evildoers are punished, others walk free protected by higher authorities, just as they probably would in real-life Cairo. The twist at the end is subtly signalled. Makana, too, has his demons¹⁷. His journey, as he learns to live with them, stays with you.

　　Parker Bilal（真名为Jamal Mahjoub）生于伦敦，曾居于苏丹和开罗，擅写小说，文笔优美。他的犯罪小说字字璇玑，笔触细腻精妙，有如散文，甚为难得：一位老人“饱经风霜，脸上的皱纹交结在一起，如同一张收拢的渔网。”；建筑工地散乱的钢筋像“无数烧过的火柴棍儿”；灯泡没有灯罩，悬在花线末端，宛如“葡萄藤上奇异的水果”。小说将故事背景设在“阿拉伯之春”前，鲜活地重现了当时的开罗：它的喧嚣，它的气味，全都跃然纸上，呼之欲出。小说对角色的刻画细致入微，真实可信；Makana的同盟好友Okasha警官，对朋友忠诚友善的记者Sami都是如此。然而文章的中段有些拖沓——犯罪小说很难处理好这些地方——还有一些多余的“有意义”的会面，人从这头穿过氤氲的烟雾看着桌子的那头。在文章最后，正义勉强算是得到了伸张。一些行恶之人受到了惩罚，一些则在上头的保护下逍遥法外；如果真的是在开罗，最后结局大概也就是这样。结尾的大转折在前文中埋有伏笔。Makana心中也有自己的恶魔。在旅途中，他学习着如何与它们一道生活；在这条路上，他与你相随。

1 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

2 alleys   

胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径

参考例句：

• I followed him through a maze of narrow alleys. 我紧随他穿过一条条迂迴曲折的窄巷。
• The children lead me through the maze of alleys to the edge of the city. 孩子们领我穿过迷宫一般的街巷，来到城边。

3 bazaar   

n.集市，商店集中区

参考例句：

• Chickens,goats and rabbits were offered for barter at the bazaar.在集市上，鸡、山羊和兔子被摆出来作物物交换之用。
• We bargained for a beautiful rug in the bazaar.我们在集市通过讨价还价买到了一条很漂亮的地毯。

4 swirls   

n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Swirls of smoke rose through the trees. 树林中升起盘旋的青烟。 来自辞典例句
• On reaching the southeast corner of Himalaya-Tibet, It'swirls cyclonically across the Yunnan Plateau. 在到达喜马拉雅--西藏高原东南角处，它作气旋性转向越过云南高原。 来自辞典例句

5 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

6 aristocrat   

n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物

参考例句：

• He was the quintessential english aristocrat.他是典型的英国贵族。
• He is an aristocrat to the very marrow of his bones.他是一个道道地地的贵族。

7 perilous   

adj.危险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• The journey through the jungle was perilous.穿过丛林的旅行充满了危险。
• We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis.历经一连串危机，我们如今已安然无恙。

8 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

9 subtlety   

n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别

参考例句：

• He has shown enormous strength,great intelligence and great subtlety.他表现出充沛的精力、极大的智慧和高度的灵活性。
• The subtlety of his remarks was unnoticed by most of his audience.大多数听众都没有觉察到他讲话的微妙之处。

10 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

11 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

12 flex   

n.皮线，花线；vt.弯曲或伸展

参考例句：

• We wound off a couple of yards of wire for a new lamp flex.我们解开几码电线作为新的电灯花线。
• He gave his biceps a flex to impress the ladies.他收缩他的肱二头肌以吸引那些女士们的目光。

13 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

14 evoked   

[医]诱发的

参考例句：

• The music evoked memories of her youth. 这乐曲勾起了她对青年时代的回忆。
• Her face, though sad, still evoked a feeling of serenity. 她的脸色虽然悲伤，但仍使人感觉安详。

15 seeping   

v.（液体）渗( seep的现在分词 )；渗透；渗出；漏出

参考例句：

• Water had been slowly seeping away from the pond. 池塘里的水一直在慢慢渗漏。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Chueh-hui could feel the cold seeping into his bones. 觉慧开始觉得寒气透过衣服浸到身上来了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

16 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

17 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》