成名前“靠退稿箋打發日子”的女作傢帕特·巴剋（Ｐａｔ Ｂａｒｋｅｒ）意外贏獲今年的英國布剋小說奬，令英倫書界倍感驚奇，因為獲奬名單揭曉前被認為最有望中奬的應該是９月間推齣新作《摩爾人最後的嘆息》（ｔｈｅ Ｍｏｏｒ’ｓ Ｌａｓｔ Ｓｉｇｎ）的小說傢薩爾曼·拉什迪（Ｓａｌｍａｎ Ｒｕｓｈｄｉｅ）。

１９４３年齣生於英格蘭北方的巴剋齣身勞動階層，曾就讀於倫敦經濟學院，從事文學創作前以教書為業。其祖母、母親和姐姐都是吃苦耐勞的清潔工，從小由開小食店的祖父母養大的巴剋對英國勞動婦女有著深厚情感，自１９８２年齣版處女作《聯盟街》（Ｕｎｉｏｎ Ｓｔｒｅｅｔ）後，她一直以勞動婦女的悲慘命運為題材進行寫作，相繼寫齣瞭《炸塌你的房子》（Ｂｌｏｗ Ｙｏｕｒ Ｈｏｕｓｅ Ｄｏｗｎ）和《世紀的女兒》（Ｔｈｅ Ｃｅｎｔｕｒｙ’ｓ Ｄａｕｇｈ－ｔｅｒ）等小說。她於１９９１年起開始以第一次世界大戰為背景寫作，先後齣版瞭《再生》（Ｒｅｇｅｎｅｒａｔｉｏｎ）、《門裏的眼睛》（ｔｈｅ Ｅｙｅ Ｉｎ ｔｈｅ Ｄｏｏｒ）和《幽靈之路》（Ｔｈｅ Ｇｈｏｓｔ Ｒｏａｄ）小說三部麯。今年齣版的《幽靈之路》為她贏得瞭眾所矚目的布剋奬，並獲得２萬英鎊奬金。她認為，創作此小說目的並不是讓人們感受戰爭的恐怖，而是要人們思考為什麼會發生戰爭以及戰火帶給人類社會的災禍。她說，作品是受當年參加過戰爭的祖父激發而寫就。

巴剋是繼Ａ．Ｓ拜阿特（Ａ．Ｓ Ｂｙａｔｔ）１９９０年獲布剋奬以後，又一個獲此奬的女小說傢。她在英國文壇甚有影響，處女作《聯盟街》曾被改編成電影《斯坦利和艾麗絲》（Ｓｔａｎｌｅｙ Ａｎｄ Ｉｒｉｓ），由著名影星簡·方達和羅伯特·德尼羅主演。今年與她同獲布剋奬提名的除拉什迪外，還有３年前的布剋奬得主巴裏·昂斯沃思（Ｂａｒｒｙ Ｕｎｓｗｏｒｔｈ）、澳大利亞小說傢蒂姆·溫頓（Ｔｉｍ Ｗｉｎｔｍ）和南非作傢賈斯廷·卡特賴特（Ｊｕｓｔｉｎ Ｃａｒｔｗｒｉｇｈｔ）。

全稱布剋·麥康奈爾小說奬（Ｂｏｏｋｅｒ Ｍｃ－Ｃｏｎｎｅｌｌ Ｐｒｉｚｅ ｆｏｒ Ｆｉｃｔｉｏｎ）的布剋奬設立於１９６９年，評奬經費由英國布剋·麥康奈爾跨國公司提供，由５位資深文學評論傢組成的評委對每年在英國和英聯邦國傢內用英文齣版的小說進行評選，初次選齣１４１部，經過評委６個月審讀，再推舉齣６部（有時可達８部）入圍終評，最後評齣一名獲奬者，奬金２萬英鎊。

年選一次的布剋奬雖常因評奬結果引起爭議，但也因其得奬作傢的非凡功力而被認為當今英倫最有權威性的文學大奬，曆屆得主中不乏獲奬後又獲諾貝爾文學奬的納丁·戈迪默和威廉·戈爾丁，以及因作品被拍成電影而名揚全球的實力派作傢，比如《辛德勒名單》作者湯姆斯·基尼利和《餘日殘戀》作者石黑一雄。

Pat Barker

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Pat Barker (born May 8 1943[1]) is an English writer and historian. She published her first novel, Union Street, in 1982 and has since won critical acclaim for her First World War series, the Regeneration trilogy, a fictionalised account of the wartime experiences of the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, the psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers, and the fictional protagonist, Lt. Billy Prior. The final book in the trilogy, The Ghost Road, won the Booker Prize upon its publication.

In 1965 Barker completed a degree in international history at the London School of Economics[2] and subsequently studied at Durham University marrying David Barker, a now retired Zoology Professor at the institution. Their daughter Anna Ralph published her own novel The Floating Island (Hutchinson, ISBN 10: 0091795559) in 2007.

Barker's biographer is Sharon Montieth.[3].

[edit] Books

Union Street (1982)

Blow Your House Down (1984)

The Century's Daughter (also known as Liza's England; 1986)

The Man Who Wasn't There (1989)

Regeneration Trilogy :

Regeneration (1991)

The Eye in the Door (1993)

The Ghost Road (1995)

Another World (1998)

Border Crossing (2001)

Double Vision (2003)

Life Class (2007)

The Eye in the Door is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1993, and forming the second part of the Regeneration trilogy.

The Eye in the Door is set in London, beginning in mid-April, 1918, and continues the interwoven stories of Dr William Rivers, Billy Prior, and Siegfried Sassoon begun in Regeneration. It ends some time before the conclusion of the First World War later the same year. The third part of the trilogy, The Ghost Road, continues the story.

The narrative is driven by action, balanced by lengthy and well-crafted dialogues, many of which simmer with the cat-and-mouse tension of doctor-patient consultations. Description is kept close to a functional minimum.

The first and eponymous part of the Regeneration trilogy finishes somewhat inconclusively with Sassoon being cleared to return to active service on the Western Front. Several questions remain unanswered. What happens to Sassoon? How does Rivers resolve his personal conflicts over the contradictory goals of war and medicine? What resolution lies in store for the couple Billy Prior and Sarah Lumb? The Eye in the Door goes a long way to answering these questions, and raises still more.

Whereas Regeneration is an anomalous, but not unique, mixture of fact and fiction, The Eye in the Door acknowledges real events, including the campaign against homosexuals male and female being waged that year by right-wing MP Noel Pemberton Billing, but remains consistently within the realm of fiction. This grants Barker more freedom to explore her characters and their actions, the descriptions of which might be considered slanderous if attributed to real people. A major theme of the book, Prior's intense and indiscriminate bisexuality, is effectively contrasted with Rivers's tepid asexuality and Sassoon's pure homosexuality. Greater fictional scope also permits a deeper and more fascinating treatment of the complex psychological, political, and professional life of the charismatic and enigmatic central character, Billy Prior. This makes the book more purposeful and formally coherent than its predecessor.

The Eye in the Door subtly draws out some of the contradictions that war brings forth, acts that would normally be immoral become moral, the sane are treated as mad, and while a fight is waged for 'freedom' injustice and prejudice continue to flourish throughout England. The emergent conflicts shared by the main characters - some of which are artfully developed from incidental and easily overlooked minor aspects of the first book - make for intrigue that is only partially developed in this book. This sense of incompleteness, of the author holding something back, seems to presuppose a third volume in the series, perhaps calling into question the integral wholeness of this book as a stand-alone work.

[edit] Real people who appear in the Regeneration trilogy

Winston Churchill

Charles Dodgson

Robert Graves

Henry Head

Edward Marsh

Wilfred Owen

William Rivers

Robert Baldwin Ross

Bertrand Russell

Siegfried Sassoon

Harold Sherwood Spencer

Lewis Yealland