半身 (創元推理文庫) [文庫]

【サマセット・モーム賞受賞】
1874年の秋、監獄を訪れたわたしは、不思議な女囚と出逢った。ただならぬ静寂をまとったその娘は……霊媒。戸惑うわたしの前に、やがて、秘めやかに謎が零れ落ちてくる。魔術的な筆さばきの物語が到達する、青天の霹靂のごとき結末。魔物のように妖しい魅力に富む、ミステリの絶品！

＊第1位「週刊文春」2003年傑作ミステリーベスト10／海外部門
＊第1位「このミステリーがすごい！ 2004年版」海外編ベスト10
＊第3位『IN★POCKET』文庫翻訳ミステリーベスト10／総合部門・評論家部門

独房からは信じがたい静寂が漂ってきた。獄内の静けさを残らず集めたより深い静謐が。それを破ったのは溜息。わたしは思わず、中を覗いた。娘は眼を閉じ…祈っている!指の間には、鮮やかな紫―うなだれた菫の花。1874年秋、倫敦の監獄を慰問に訪れた上流婦人が、不思議な女囚と出逢う。娘は霊媒。幾多の謎をはらむ物語は魔術的な筆さばきで、読む者をいずこへ連れ去るのか?サマセット・モーム賞受賞。

Affinity is a tale of power and possession that Henry James himself might admire. In her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters explored secrets and longing--capping off this lesbian romp with a utopian-socialist vision. Her intricate follow-up is just as sensual but infinitely darker, its moral more difficult to descry. Its stylistic and psychological rewards, however, are visible at every turn, the author's persuasive imagination matched by her gift for storytelling.

In late September 1874, Margaret Prior makes her way through the pentagons of London's Millbank Prison, a place of fearful symmetry and endless corridors. This plain woman on the verge of 30 has come to comfort those behind bars, several of whom Waters brings to instant, sad life. And our Lady Visitor plans to take her role dead seriously, having recovered from two years of nervous indolence in her family's Chelsea house. One person, however, makes her job a passion. Opening an inspection slit (or "eye" as these devices are known), Margaret hears "a perfect sigh, like a sigh in a story." Peering inward, she's confronted by the most erotic of visions--a woman turned toward the sun, caressing her cheek with a forbidden violet: "As I watched, she put the flower to her lips, and breathed upon it, and the purple of the petals gave a quiver and seemed to glow..."

Selina Dawes may indeed have the face of a Crivelli angel, but this medium is in for fraud and assault, her last session having gone very badly indeed. Suffice it to say that the first full encounter between these two very different women is enthralling. "You think spiritualism a kind of fancy," Selina riddles. "Doesn't it seem to you, now you are here, that anything might be real, since Millbank is?" And soon enough Margaret receives several viable signs of the supernatural: a locket disappears from her room, flowers mysteriously appear, and her dazzling friend knows everything about her. Strangest of all, Selina seems to love her.

As Margaret records her weekly prison forays, her own past comes into focus, notably her plans to travel to Italy with her first love (who is now her sister-in-law). But her current journal, she convinces herself, is to be very different from her last one, which "took as long to burn as human hearts, they say, do take." Meanwhile, Waters offers a narrative two-for-one, placing Margaret's diary cheek by jowl with Selina's chronicle of her pre-Millbank existence. This dispassionate, staccato record initially suggests that we can separate truth from desire. Or can we? What Waters's haunting creation leaves us with is a more painful reality--that knowledge and belief are entirely different things. --Kerry Fried
--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

A spellbinding ghost story set in Victorian London.

Greeted with enthusiastic praise, Sarah Waters's debut novel, Tipping the Velvet, was lauded as "amazing" and "delightful" (Salon.com), "buoyant and accomplished" (The New York Times Book Review), "glorious" (The Boston Globe), and "wonderful" (San Francisco Chronicle). Critics compared her to Jeannette Winterson, adding that "readers of all sexes and orientations should identify" with Waters's unforgettable nineteenth-century heroines. Now, Sarah Waters brilliantly returns with Affinity--a haunting ghost story and Guardian (London) bestseller that has left British reviewers "transfixed with horror and excitement" (Daily Mail, London).

An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women's ward of Millbank prison, London's grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank's murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by one apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Initially skeptical of Selina's gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of sances and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last persuaded to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina's freedom.

A pulse-quickening read by a remarkably talented writer, Affinity is a sophisticated and spine-tingling historical mystery awash with the scenes, sights, and smells of nineteenth-century London.
--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

'Indeed, this is such a brilliant writer that her readers would believe anything she told them' A.N. WILSON, D. MAIL 'Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written ... I do believe Waters is on the way to becoming a major literary star' VAL HENNESSY 'A work of intense and atmospheric imagination ... Sarah Waters is ... a kind of feminist Dickens' TELEGRAPH 'Sexy, spooky, stylish, AFFINITY is a wonderful book from any perspective' G. FODEN, GUARDIAN 'Affinity is a tale of power and possession that Henry James himself might admire. In her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters explored secrets and longing--capping off this lesbian romp with a utopian-socialist vision. Her intricate follow-up is just as sensual but infinitely darker, its moral more difficult to descry. Its stylistic and psychological rewards, however, are visible at every turn, the author's persuasive imagination matched by her gift for storytelling. In late September 1874, Margaret Prior makes her way through the pentagons of London's Millbank Prison, a place of fearful symmetry and endless corridors. This plain woman on the verge of 30 has come to comfort those behind bars, several of whom Waters brings to instant, sad life. And our lady visitor plans to take her role seriously, having recovered from two years of nervous indolence in her family's Chelsea house. One person, however, makes her job a passion. Opening an inspection slit (or "eye" as these devices are known), Margaret hears "a perfect sigh, like a sigh in a story". Peering inward, she's confronted by the most erotic of visions--a woman turned towards the sun, caressing her cheek with a forbidden violet: "As I watched her, she put the flower to her lips, and breathed upon it, and the purple of the petals gave a quiver and seemed to glow..." The medium Selina Dawes may indeed have the face of a Crivelli angel, but she is in prison for fraud and assault. Suffice to say that the first full encounter between these two very different women is enthralling. "You think spiritualism a kind of fancy," Selina riddles. "Doesn't it seem to you, now that you are here, that anything might be real, since Millbank is?" And soon enough Margaret receives several viable signs of the supernatural: a locket disappears from her room, flowers mysteriously appear and her dazzling friend knows everything about her. Strangest of all, Selina seems to love her. As Margaret records her weekly forays, her own past comes into focus, notably her plans to travel to Italy with her first love (who is now her sister-in-law). But her current journal, she convinces herself, is to be very different from her last one, which "took as long to burn as human hearts, they say, do take". Meanwhile, Waters offers a narrative two-for-one, placing Margaret's diary cheek by jowl with Selina's chronicle of her pre-Millbank existence. This dispassionate, staccato record initially suggests that we can separate truth from desire. Or can we? What Waters' haunting creation leaves us with is a more painful reality--that knowledge and belief are entirely different things.' Kerry Fried, AMAZON.COM --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

Thrice crowned 2003 Author of the Year - by the Booksellers Association, Waterstone's and The British Book Awards. Winner of The South Bank Show Award, Sunday Times Author of the Year, The Somerset Maugham Award and the CWA. Shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange prizes. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

中村 有希
1968年生まれ。東京外国語大学卒業。英米文学翻訳家(本データはこの書籍が刊行された当時に掲載されていたものです)