The Dream of the Celt

他為人權奮鬥的歷程，長期被遺忘在歷史裡，少人聞問；
如今，諾貝爾文學獎得主Mario Vargas Llosa以筆桿為他發聲！

　　1916年，向來為殖民地人民權利奔走的愛爾蘭民族主義者Roger Casement被英國政府以叛國罪名處以吊刑。在其有生之年裡，Casement持續為剛果、亞馬遜、非洲與美國的原住民人權請命，希望能改善世界上被壓迫人民的困境。他的言行惹惱了英國政府，並以判國罪名將其拘禁、判刑，直到1960年代，Casementt的人權主張才又被世人重提。

　　作者之一的Mario Vargas Llosa一向被認為是拉丁美洲中最有活力、最一針見血以及最重要的文學聲音，在這部作品裡，他成功地刻劃出Roger Casement這個具有歷史深度的複雜角色，讓許多作家難以望其項背。

　　(文/博客來編譯)

　　A subtle and enlightening novel about a neglected human rights pioneer by the Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa
In 1916, the Irish nationalist Roger Casement was hanged by the British government for treason. Casement had dedicated his extraordinary life to improving the plight of oppressed peoples around the world—especially the native populations in the Belgian Congo and the Amazon—but when he dared to draw a parallel between the injustices he witnessed in African and American colonies and those committed by the British in Northern Ireland, he became involved in a cause that led to his imprisonment and execution. Ultimately, the scandals surrounding Casement’s trial and eventual hanging tainted his image to such a degree that his pioneering human rights work wasn’t fully reexamined until the 1960s.

　　In The Dream of the Celt, Mario Vargas Llosa, who has long been regarded as one of Latin America’s most vibrant, provocative, and necessary literary voices—a fact confirmed when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010—brings this complex character to life as no other writer can. A masterful work, sharply translated by Edith Grossman, The Dream of the Celt tackles a controversial man whose story has long been neglected, and, in so doing, pushes at the boundaries of the historical novel.