From a darkly comic tale of revenge to a beautiful contemplation on friendship, here are the years's most acclaimed works of fiction so far.
从一则带有黑色幽默的复仇故事，到一部关于友谊的优美沉思之作，以下是今年迄今最受赞誉的小说作品。
"Daring, deranged, cleverly written," is how Vogue describes the buzzy debut by Caro Claire Burke.
《Vogue》如此形容卡罗·克莱尔·伯克这部备受关注的处女作：“大胆、疯狂、写得巧妙。”
In this satirical thriller, tradwife influencer Natalie inexplicably wakes up in the year 1855 in a crumbling homestead.
在这部讽刺惊悚小说中，“传统妻子”网红娜塔莉莫名其妙地在1855年的一处破败宅院中醒来。
The harsh reality of rural existence in the 19th Century soon becomes clear.
19世纪乡村生活的严酷现实很快就显现出来。
Yesteryear, says the LA Times, "offers a bitingly funny and occasionally heartbreaking twist on the classic Instagram-versus-reality story".
《洛杉矶时报》称，《Yesteryear》“对经典的‘Instagram 与现实反差’故事作出了尖锐好笑、偶尔令人心碎的改写”。
Natalie is "a deliciously unlikable protagonist" who is "objectively off-putting, which makes her bitingly human".
娜塔莉是“一个令人愉快地讨厌的主人公”，她“客观上令人反感，而这让她尖锐地显得有人味”。
The novel is due to be adapted for film, with Anne Hathaway producing and starring.
这部小说预计将被改编成电影，由安妮·海瑟薇担任制片并主演。
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In Transcription, an unnamed middle-aged writer travels from New York to Providence, Rhode Island, to interview Thomas, a 90-year-old former mentor and revered writer and film-maker.
在《Transcription》中，一位未具名的中年作家从纽约前往罗得岛州普罗维登斯，去采访托马斯；托马斯现年90岁，曾是他的导师，也是一位备受尊敬的作家和电影人。
The stakes are high – Thomas's recent bout of Covid means this interview could be his last – and the writer breaks his phone just before the interview, rendering him unable to record the esteemed artist's words.
这场采访意义重大：托马斯最近感染过新冠，意味着这次采访可能是他的最后一次；而采访前作家又摔坏了手机，导致他无法记录这位受人尊敬的艺术家的话语。
What follows is a reflection on technology, storytelling and memory that The Guardian says is "intricate, uncanny, sometimes breathtakingly realistic", while The New Yorker writes: "Nothing in this exquisite, shape-shifting novel is what it seems – words least of all."
接下来展开的是对科技、讲故事和记忆的思考；《卫报》称其“精巧复杂、诡异离奇，有时现实感强得令人屏息”，而《纽约客》则写道：“在这部精美而变幻莫测的小说中，没有什么是表面看起来的样子，文字尤其如此。”
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"Gleefully nasty," is how The Times describes John Lanchester's widely acclaimed fifth novel, a black comedy of betrayal, revenge, resentment and entitlement.
《泰晤士报》称约翰·兰彻斯特广受赞誉的第五部小说“恶得痛快”，这是一部关于背叛、复仇、怨恨和特权意识的黑色喜剧。
At its centre are affluent boomer Kate and younger screenwriter Phoebe.
故事的中心人物是富裕的婴儿潮一代女性凯特和更年轻的编剧菲比。
A rivalry between them begins when Kate recognises intimate secrets from her 30-year marriage in a hit TV series.
当凯特在一部热播电视剧中认出自己30年婚姻里的私密秘密时，两人之间的竞争由此开始。
The novel "seethes with female animosity and vengeance," says the Literary Review.
《文学评论》称，这部小说“翻涌着女性之间的敌意与复仇情绪”。
"Skewed scenarios and retaliatory stratagems are craftily deployed in a novel that's a kaleidoscope of tilting perspectives."
“歪斜的情境与报复性的计策被巧妙地布置在这部小说中，而它本身就是一只由倾斜视角组成的万花筒。”
Look What you Made Me Do, it concludes, is "a gleamingly accomplished black comedy".
评论最后说，《Look What you Made Me Do》是一部“光彩夺目、技艺纯熟的黑色喜剧”。
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French is a bestselling author described by The New York Times as "one of the most consistently exciting mystery writers around".
弗伦奇是一位畅销书作家，《纽约时报》称她为“当今最能持续带来惊喜的悬疑小说作家之一”。
The Keeper is the final instalment in a trilogy that stars retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper, who becomes enmeshed in the intrigue of the fictional Irish village of Ardnakelty.
《The Keeper》是三部曲的最终篇，主角是芝加哥退休警察卡尔·胡珀，他卷入了虚构的爱尔兰村庄阿德纳凯尔蒂的阴谋纠葛之中。
As the body of a young woman is found in a river, Hooper is drawn into investigating the case.
随着一名年轻女子的尸体在河中被发现，胡珀被卷入了这起案件的调查。
Amid the town's bitter feuds and long-standing grudges, he grapples with the future of this rural community.
在小镇激烈的纷争和长期积怨之中，他努力思考这个乡村社区的未来。
"Dense, compelling and superbly atmospheric," says The Guardian.
《卫报》称其“厚重、引人入胜，氛围营造极佳”。
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Blending memoir and fiction to explore memory, ageing and love, Julian Barnes's self-declared swansong Departure(s) is brief, and with only a sketchy plot.
朱利安·巴恩斯自称为告别之作的《Departure(s)》融合回忆录与小说来探讨记忆、衰老和爱，篇幅简短，情节也只是粗略勾勒。
One of the book's threads is a romance between the narrator's friends Stephen and Jean, who were in love in their university days, then reconnected again in old age.
书中的一条线索是叙述者的朋友斯蒂芬和琼之间的爱情：他们大学时代曾经相爱，年老后又重新取得联系。
The narrator, meanwhile, reflects on memory, ageing and love.
与此同时，叙述者思考着记忆、衰老与爱。
Departure(s) is a "valedictory flourish" says The Atlantic.
《大西洋月刊》称，《Departure(s)》是一次“告别式的华丽收笔”。
"The whole package is a culmination of sorts, shimmering with his silky, erudite prose; beneath the suave surface is an earnest investigation into the mysterious ways of the human heart."
“整部作品在某种意义上是一次集大成，闪耀着他丝滑而博学的散文风格；在优雅从容的表面之下，是对人心神秘运作方式的真诚探究。”
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Yamashita's first novel in 16 years centres on a dark period of US history – the internment of Japanese immigrants during World War Two.
山下16年来的首部长篇小说聚焦美国历史上一段黑暗时期：第二次世界大战期间对日本移民的拘禁。
Under the order of President Franklin D Roosevelt, hundreds of thousands of people were taken from their homes on the West Coast and put in camps throughout the US.
在富兰克林·D·罗斯福总统的命令下，数十万人被迫离开西海岸的家园，被安置到美国各地的营地中。
Questions 27 and 28 were part of a questionnaire prisoners were given to assess their loyalty.
第27题和第28题出自一份发给囚犯、用来评估他们忠诚度的问卷。
Yamashita's historical novel – which blends real and fictional events with composite characters – examines the period and the ensuing internal battles that arose around the loyalty test.
山下的这部历史小说将真实与虚构事件同复合型人物结合起来，审视了那段时期，以及围绕忠诚测试产生的随后内部冲突。
"Yamashita is at her best when she zooms out… and meditates on the greater stakes of these scattered lives," writes Hua Hsu in the New Yorker.
许华在《纽约客》中写道：“当山下把视角拉远……并沉思这些零散人生背后更重大的利害关系时，她展现出了最佳状态。”
"We feel the weight of the pasts, all these accumulated voices and perspectives, within and between Yamashita's novels, as well as the process through which disparate stories, anecdotes, or experiences might coalesce as history."
“在山下的小说内部以及小说之间，我们能感受到过去的重量，感受到这些累积起来的声音和视角，也能感受到不同的故事、轶事或经历可能凝聚成历史的过程。”
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Having been a Pulitzer finalist back in 2010 for short story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin now returns with a highly acclaimed novel.
丹尼亚尔·穆伊努丁曾凭短篇小说集《In Other Rooms, Other Wonders》入围2010年普利策奖决选，如今他带着一部备受好评的小说回归。
Exploring how power, class and the legacy of feudalism shape lives in modern Pakistan, the novel follows overlapping narratives of the landowners and staff of a family-run farm.
这部小说探讨权力、阶级和封建主义遗产如何塑造现代巴基斯坦人的生活，并循着一个家族经营农场中地主和员工相互交叠的叙事展开。
This is Where the Serpent Lives is "sensitive and powerful" says the New York Times.
《This is Where the Serpent Lives》“细腻而有力”，《纽约时报》这样评价道。
"Mueenuddin makes the reader care about the romantic relationships, and the pages turn themselves."
“穆伊努丁让读者关心这些恋爱关系，书页仿佛自己就翻了下去。”
It is "a serious book that you'll be hearing about again, later in the year, when the shortlists for the big literary prizes are announced".
这是一部“严肃之作，等到今年晚些时候各大文学奖公布入围名单时，你还会再次听到它的名字”。
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Announcing Kin as one of her Book Club picks, Oprah Winfrey described Tayari Jones's fifth novel as "a masterpiece… that contemplates the meaning [and] complications of friendship".
奥普拉·温弗瑞宣布将《Kin》列为她读书俱乐部的入选书目之一，并称塔亚里·琼斯的第五部小说是“一部杰作……思考了友谊的意义及其复杂性”。
Motherless since they were infants, Vernice and Annie are "cradle friends", who coming of age in Honeysuckle, Louisiana in 1950s US.
弗妮丝和安妮自婴儿时期起就没有母亲，她们是“摇篮好友”，在20世纪50年代美国路易斯安那州的霍尼萨克尔长大成人。
As they grow, the friends drift apart – one goes down the path of college and relationships; the other in pursuit of the mother who abandoned her.
随着她们长大，这对朋友渐行渐远：一个走上了大学和恋爱关系的道路；另一个则去追寻那个抛弃了她的母亲。
"A lush, beautiful novel", writes Radhika Jones in The New York Times.
拉迪卡·琼斯在《纽约时报》写道：“这是一部丰盈而美丽的小说。”
"When reading Kin, I wanted nothing more than to keep reading it."
“读《Kin》的时候，我唯一想做的就是继续读下去。”
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Pulitzer-winning author Elizabeth Strout is known for her series of novels featuring iconic characters Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, and her deft portrayals of small-town life in all its fraught, familial complexity.
普利策奖得主伊丽莎白·斯特劳特以一系列塑造了标志性人物奥丽芙·基特里奇和露西·巴顿的小说而闻名，也以娴熟描绘小镇生活中充满张力的家庭复杂性著称。
The Things we Never Say is a stand-alone novel about Artie Dam – a high-school history teacher who is navigating loneliness and a changing world – as he confronts a life-altering secret.
《The Things we Never Say》是一部独立成篇的小说，讲述高中历史教师阿蒂·达姆在面对一个足以改变人生的秘密时，如何应对孤独和变化中的世界。
"There is so much here to explore, so many endless human mysteries," says The Guardian.
《卫报》称：“这里有太多值得探索的东西，有太多无尽的人性之谜。”
"Let's hope that this fine author continues steadily along her path, delivering unto her loyal readers story upon story, gift upon gift."
“希望这位优秀的作家能继续稳步走在自己的道路上，把一个又一个故事、一份又一份礼物献给她忠实的读者。”
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"Full of pathos and humour," according to The Times, The Palm House centres on a pair of spiky middle-aged colleagues, Laura Miller, a writer and the novel's narrator, and Edmund Putnam, an older editor who is leaving his job at a highbrow literary magazine.
据《泰晤士报》称，《The Palm House》“充满哀婉与幽默”，小说围绕一对尖刻的中年同事展开：劳拉·米勒是一名作家，也是小说的叙述者；埃德蒙·普特南则是一位年长编辑，正准备离开他在一家高雅文学杂志的工作。
The friends' conversations in London pubs over drinks and shared packets of crisps are interspersed with often heartbreaking recollections about their pasts.
朋友们在伦敦酒吧里一边喝酒、一边分吃几包薯片时的交谈，其间穿插着他们对过往往往令人心碎的回忆。
Critics have praised the novel's dialogue, which Riley, writes the LRB, "wields… like a Swiss army knife, now corkscrewed, now serrated, but always coming to a short, sharp point."
评论家称赞了这部小说的对白；《伦敦书评》写道，赖利用对白“就像挥舞一把瑞士军刀，时而像开瓶钻般盘绕，时而像锯齿般锋利，但总能短促而尖锐地直抵要害”。
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