An apocalyptic cult member carries out a gas attack on a rush-hour metro, but what connects him to a jazz buff in Tokyo? A woman on a holy mountain talks to a tree - and the tree talks back - unaware of the effect the financial irregularities of a burnt-out lawyer will have on her life. Add to this - a Mongolian gangster, a redundant English spy in Petersburg with a knack for forging masterpieces, a despondent ''zookeeper'', a nuclear scientist, a ghostwriter, a ghost, and a late night New York DJ whose hard-boiled scepticism has been his undoing. All of them have tales to tell, and all must play their part as they are caught up in the inescapable forces of cause and effect.
關於作者:
David Mitchell''s first novel, GHOSTWRITTEN, was published in 1999, when it won the Mail on SundayJohn Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His second, NUMBER9DREAM, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and in 2003 he was chosen as one of Granta''s Best of Young British Novelists. CLOUD ATLAS, his third novel, won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the South Bank Show Literature Prize, and the Best Literary Fiction and Richard Judy Best Read of the Year categories in the British Book Awards, as well as being shortlisted for a further six awards including the Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers'' Prize. It was followed by BLACK SWAN GREEN, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Man Booker. His most recent book, THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010.
Born in 1969, David Mitchell grew up in Worcestershire. After graduating from Kent University, he spent several years teaching in Japan, and now lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.
大卫·米切尔,英国著名作家,欧美文学界公认的新一代小说大师。1969年生于英格兰伍斯特郡,在肯特大学主修英美文学、比较文学。曾在日本广岛担任工程系学生的英文教师八年。
米切尔博采村上春树、奥斯特、卡尔维诺、博尔赫斯诸大师作品之所长,自成一派,其作波诡云谲,灵气无穷。处女作《幽灵代笔》1999轰动欧美文学界,荣获莱斯文学奖,入围《卫报》处女作奖决选;《九号梦》2001入围布克奖决选,米切尔也因此书被评为英国最佳青年小说家,《云图》2004荣膺英国国家图书奖最佳小说奖和理查与茱蒂读书俱乐部年度选书,同时入围布克奖、星云奖、克拉克奖决选;《绿野黑天鹅》2006入围布克奖。
米切尔小说原创性十足,为21世纪英语小说开启了全新的模式与风貌。2007年,以杰出的文学成就被美国《时代》杂志评为“世界100位最具影响力的人物”之一。