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

　　The Golden Scales. By Parker Bilal.

　　《金色的區(qū)域》，Parker Bilal于布倫堡著。

　　Parker Bilal whisks the reader straight to the dark heart of Cairo. From the maze of alleys in themedieval bazaar to sand-blown, half-finished luxuryhousing developments, the Egyptian capital is a menacing place where betrayal swirls like an army of djinns.

　　Parker Bilal帶領(lǐng)讀者輕松殺入開羅黑暗的心臟。從中世紀(jì)市集迷宮般的巷道，到塵土飛揚(yáng)，尚未竣工的豪宅工地，埃及首都處處是威脅，背叛則如神魔組成的軍隊(duì)一般盤旋梭巡，神出鬼沒。

　　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 corrupt Cairene oligarch, with finding Adil Romario, a star football player. Meanwhile, Liz Markham, the daughter of a British aristocrat, 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 perilous world peopled with Egypt's ultra-rich, Islamic militants and Russian organised crime. It's a heady mix, but one that Mr Bilal pulls off with verve.

　　Makana，蘇丹人士，窮困潦倒，因政治問題被流放他鄉(xiāng)，獨(dú)居于尼羅河上一艘破敗不堪的船屋里。他肩負(fù)開羅殘暴腐朽的獨(dú)裁者Hanafi的使命，尋找足球明星Adil Romario。同時(shí)，英國(guó)貴族之女Liz Markham在尋找20余年前在開羅丟失的女兒時(shí)被折磨并被殺害了。Makana曾為警察，自然絕不天真，但很快卻發(fā)現(xiàn)自己身陷人間地獄，周圍盡是埃及巨富、伊斯蘭好戰(zhàn)分子，還有俄羅斯人組織的犯罪。這是個(gè)讓人眼花繚亂的局面，Bilal先生卻用高超的技藝成功駕馭了它。

　　A London-born literary novelist, Parker Bilal (whose real name is Jamal Mahjoub) has also lived in Cairo and Sudan. His prose has a subtlety 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 drawn in”; metal rods on a construction site are scattered like “enormous burned matchsticks”; naked light bulbs on an electrical flex resemble “strange fruits on a vine”. The novel is set in pre-Arab-spring Cairo and the city is vividly evoked, its smells and sounds almost seeping 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 tricky 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 demons. His journey, as he learns to live with them, stays with you.

　　Parker Bilal(真名為Jamal Mahjoub)生于倫敦，曾居于蘇丹和開羅，擅寫小說(shuō)，文筆優(yōu)美。他的犯罪小說(shuō)字字璇璣，筆觸細(xì)膩精妙，有如散文，甚為難得：一位老人“飽經(jīng)風(fēng)霜，臉上的皺紋交結(jié)在一起，如同一張收攏的漁網(wǎng)。”;建筑工地散亂的鋼筋像“無(wú)數(shù)燒過的火柴棍兒”;燈泡沒有燈罩，懸在花線末端，宛如“葡萄藤上奇異的水果”。小說(shuō)將故事背景設(shè)在“阿拉伯之春”前，鮮活地重現(xiàn)了當(dāng)時(shí)的開羅：它的喧囂，它的氣味，全都躍然紙上，呼之欲出。小說(shuō)對(duì)角色的刻畫細(xì)致入微，真實(shí)可信;Makana的同盟好友Okasha警官，對(duì)朋友忠誠(chéng)友善的記者Sami都是如此。然而文章的中段有些拖沓——犯罪小說(shuō)很難處理好這些地方——還有一些多余的“有意義”的會(huì)面，人從這頭穿過氤氳的煙霧看著桌子的那頭。在文章最后，正義勉強(qiáng)算是得到了伸張。一些行惡之人受到了懲罰，一些則在上頭的保護(hù)下逍遙法外;如果真的是在開羅，最后結(jié)局大概也就是這樣。結(jié)尾的大轉(zhuǎn)折在前文中埋有伏筆。Makana心中也有自己的惡魔。在旅途中，他學(xué)習(xí)著如何與它們一道生活;在這條路上，他與你相隨。

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