The End of Days

　　《The End of Days》是由五篇不同的故事集結而成，每一則故事的女主角最後都以不同方式走向人生的盡頭，死亡的時間點從嬰兒期到老年，以此串連成一幅20世紀歐洲浮世繪。

　　首章故事的背景是20世紀初期的哈布斯堡王國，通篇以一個亡故的女嬰展開敘述。進入下一章時，前一篇故事的女嬰成長為住在維也納的女孩，因為一段異國戀情導致另一次的身亡。第三篇中，女孩克服了年少輕狂的缺失，與夫婿搬至俄國後雙雙成為共產黨員，不料後來被送進勞改營告終。下一段的她，由於某人協助幸運地逃離營區，返回柏林後成為受人尊敬的作家……。

　　小說圍繞著偶然與宿命，在21世紀的新時代裡，為德國與德國猶太人的歷史提供了獨特且鮮明的論述視角。（文／博客來編譯）

　　Winner of the Presigious Hans Fallada Prize and a bestseller in Europe, The End of Days offers a unique view on twentieth-century German history.

　　The End of Days, by acclaimed German writer Jenny Erpenbeck, consists essentially of five “books,” each leading to a different death of an unnamed woman protagonist. How could it all have gone differently? the narrator asks in the intermezzos between. The first chapter begins with the death of a baby in the early twentieth-century Hapsburg Empire. In the next chapter, the same girl grows up in Vienna, but her strange relationship with a boy leads to another death. In the next scenario, she survives  adolescence and moves to Russia with her husband. Both are dedicated Communists, but our heroine is sent to a labor camp. She is spared in the next chapter with the help of someone’s intervention and returns to Berlin to become a respected writer. . . .

　　The End of Days is a brilliant novel of contingency and fate. A novel of incredible breadth, yet amazing concision, The End of Days offers a unique overview of German and German-Jewish history by “one of the finest, most exciting authors alive”