内容简介

　　《道德故事集》是库切短篇小说集，中文版首次引进，共包括《狗》《故事》《虚荣》《女人渐老时》《老妇人与猫》《谎言》《玻璃屠宰场》七个故事。

　　小说集以母与子、爱与欲、青春与衰老、人与动物的关系等为切入口，以思辨性对话和心理刻画，塑造了内心丰富、个性鲜明的女性形象，故事简明但意味深长，呈现出库切对人类道德本质和生命处境的深沉思考。

　　在Goodreads和亚马逊上有读者评论：“七个故事都言浅意深，有些段落需要反复读才能理解作者的意思，留着这本书20年后还能常看常新。”

　　“第一次听说库切这个诺奖得主时，以为他的小说艰深晦涩；读了这些故事，发现他的风格其实明晰、深刻、又轻巧。”

　　“这里收集的故事呼吁我们具有理解（和同情）他人（无论是人还是动物）的能力，并接受或重新思考我们行为的可能后果，无论是明显合理的不忠还是我们自己逃离世界。”

　　“我们面对的故事触动了我们道德信念的深处；那些写的和没有（写）的。有关婚姻、孩子、爱情、兽性……都不免在读者中引起争论和反思。”

　　也有读者评论说，“这一次，又一次证明了库切在其艺术巅峰时期的天才。”

　　2003年，库切荣获诺贝尔文学奖，评语曾说：“他精准地刻画了众多假面具下的人性本质：他的作品提出了一个问题，而且是以最不妥协的方式提出的，那就是——什么是人性？什么是承认别人的人性？”“库切的小说以结构精致、对话隽永、思辨深邃为特色。然而，他是一个有道德原则的怀疑论者，对当下西方文明中浅薄的道德感和残酷的理性主义给予毫不留情的批判。他以知性的诚实消解了一切自我慰藉的基础，使自己远离俗丽而毫无价值的戏剧化的解悟和忏悔。”

　　在本书中，库切同样以隽永的对话和深邃的思辨等，审视了女性权利、动物权利、人的权利，包括如何倾听"他者"自己的声音、如何让他们做出自己的选择等，都再一次印证了诺奖的评语。

　　接下来，就交给大家亲自去感受。

　　作者简介：

　　J.M.库切（J.M.Coetzee）

　　享誉世界的南非作家、批评家，第一位两次获得布克奖的作家，2003年荣膺诺贝尔文学奖。还荣获耶路撒冷奖、费柏纪念奖、布莱克纪念奖、法国费米那奖、美国普利策奖、爱尔兰时报国际小说、2000年英联邦作家奖等。

　　1940年生于南非开普敦，荷兰裔移民后代，成长于南非种族隔离政策逐渐成形并盛行的年代。现居澳大利亚。

　　库切关注种族隔离下人的生存状态，享有世界声誉。

　　译者简介：

　　远子

　　青年作家，译者。译有《达摩流浪者》《思想之诗》《零点女人》。著小说集《夜晚属于恋人》《白日漫游》《光从哪里来》，诗集《室内流亡》。

Content introduction

Moral Tales is a collection of Coetzee's short stories. The Chinese version is introduced for the first time, including seven stories: "Dog", "Story", "Vanity", "When a Woman grows Old", "The Old Woman and the Cat", "Lies" and "The Glass Slaughterhouse".

The novel collection takes the relationship between mother and son, love and desire, youth and aging, human and animal as the starting point, and uses speculative dialogue and psychological portrayal to shape the female image with rich heart and distinct personality. The story is concise but meaningful, showing Coetzee's deep thinking on the moral nature of human beings and life situation.

One reader review on Goodreads and Amazon said: "All seven stories are short and deep, some passages need to be re-read to understand the author's meaning, and this book will still be re-read after 20 years."

"When I first heard of Coetzee, a Nobel Prize winner, I thought his novels were difficult and obscure. Reading these stories, I found that his style is actually clear, deep and light."

"The stories collected here call for our ability to understand (and empathize with) others, whether human or animal, and to accept or rethink the possible consequences of our actions, whether it's clearly justified infidelity or our own escape from the world."

"We face stories that touch the depths of our moral convictions; Those that write and those that don't. About marriage, children, love, bestiality... It can't help but provoke debate and reflection among readers."

Another reader commented, "Once again, it proves Coetzee's genius at the peak of his art."

In 2003, Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, with a review that said: "He accurately portrays the essence of humanity under many masks: his work asks the question, and does so in the most uncompromising way, what is humanity?" What does it mean to recognize someone's humanity?" "Coetzee's novels are characterized by exquisite structure, meaningful dialogue, and profound thinking. However, he is a morally principled skeptic, unsparing in his criticism of the shallow morality and brutal rationalism of current Western civilization. With intellectual honesty he dissolves all the bases of self-consolation, distancing himself from the gaudy and worthless drama of enlightenment and confession."

In this book, Coetzee also examines women's rights, animal rights, and human rights with meaningful dialogue and profound speculation, including how to listen to the voice of "others" themselves and how to let them make their own choices, which once again confirms the Nobel Prize's comments.

Now, let's leave it to you to see for yourself.

About the author:

J.M.Coetzee

World-renowned South African writer and critic, the first author to win the Booker Prize twice, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. He has also won the Jerusalem Prize, the Faber Memorial Prize, the Black Memorial Prize, the Fermina Prize in France, the Pulitzer Prize in the United States, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and the 2000 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1940, the son of Dutch immigrants, he grew up during the formative years of apartheid in South Africa. He lives in Australia.

Coetzee gained a worldwide reputation for his concern about the conditions of people living under apartheid.

About the Translator

Yuanzi

Young writer, translator. Translated "Dharma Wanderer", "Poetry of Thought", "Zero point woman". He is the author of the novel "Night belongs to Lovers", "Day Wandering", "Where the Light comes from", and the poetry collection "Indoor Exile".