When We Were Romans

在六月，我跟11所的同事聚餐後，路經信義誠品就順便買了這一本。我回台灣後買了好多小說，雖然說我很認真地閱讀，但身為工作繁忙的假OL真工廠小妹的我閱讀進度大大不如以往：沒上班的時候大概三天可以讀完一本小說，但現在大概需要兩個星期才能啃完一本。

趁著颱風假，把六月中購入的這本小說看完了。這個版本的封面有沒有偵探小說的感覺？

看到這一個版本的封面我就會把它歸為科學類的書。但事實上，這是本小說，而且是本看了會heartbrea k的小說。故事大綱還是從誠品那邊借一下：

九歲的Lawrence是這個家的「男人」，他自願肩負起照護妹妹Jemima和媽媽Hannah的責任，無論如何都要守護他們共有的家。當Hannah發現已經分居的丈夫仍然暗中監視、跟蹤他們，他們決定舉家逃離倫敦，搬往Hannah成長的地方羅馬；而對Lawrence而言，羅馬是一個充滿英雄故事、帝王事蹟的冒險城市。儘管他們過得貧窮困乏，而必須輾轉遷移、借住在Hannah不同朋友家中，但是他們在羅馬終於可以漸漸安定下來，展開新生活。但是Hannah的前夫、這對小兒女的父親，真的會這樣放過他們嗎？Lawrence的意志堅定，不管生活如何動盪不安，他還是要堅持保護他們的家。

剛開始閱讀的時候，我老是看著書中的單字思索著是不是我的英文這麼爛？怎麼好多單字都似曾相識，但整個句子讀起來就是怪怪的？ 像是：

"anyway those aren't real sweets their cough sweets, their bad for you." (p.2)

"oh Lawrence, i don't want to upsit you with all of this." (p.6)

後來我才想起來，這本書的主角是個九歲的小男孩! 這樣一想之後，大概就可以猜測作者是特意要模仿小男孩的語氣講述故事，所以閱讀的時候就要憑著自己的想像力去猜測應該有的單字。像是剛剛的their bad for you，其實是they're bad for you。看！這樣讀起來是不是簡單多了。

小說的封面寫著衛報給的評語 "Heartbreakingly moving. This is a poignant, haunting and lovely novel." 這本書中有許多Lawrence觀察媽媽Hannah面對各種生活不順心時的反應，以第三者的角度看著小男孩的敘述，我真的覺得小朋友的觀察力及想像力好驚人：

"You see all that smiling she (Hannah) got from getting the food from the supermarket was just gone away again, it was like i all went down the plug hole ...... she just looked all worried and desperate."(p.5)
"... I thought "what if she (Hannah) goes really sad again and stops talking like she went at the bed and breakfast" I thought " I don't know how to go back to Crissys, I don't even know which road goes back to the tram stop, and mums much too big and heavy for me to pull her up from her chair, we'll be stuck here all day." (p.78)
"She said "how lovely" but it wasn't real actually, I could see it, because her eyes were really cross." (p.105)

書中的小男孩不時地提出羅馬大帝的故事以及科學家對銀河系的描述，我一面看，一面想著這些古代大帝是拿來作為書中哪個角色的對比？而銀河系又代表的是什麼？其實看完書之後，我還是沒有得到解答。 小男孩敘述的銀河系總帶給人淡淡哀傷的感覺啊：

"Sientists have known for ages that something terrible will happen to the sun. This is sad but there is nothing scientists can do, they can't stop it with any invention, even something really clever from the future, because the sun is too big you see, it will just happen anyway. ... But then scientists discovered a really good thing which is called gravitational lensing. ... Perhaps the scientists will see another planet with their gravitational lensing, it will be lovely and green, it will be beautiful. Then everybody will be all right after all. They will build a huge space craft and escape there before the sun goes out." (p.287)

小朋友除了喜歡看歷史故事以及研究銀河系以外，他也很喜歡依據他的觀察為他剛認識的人取一個動物的外號，像是熊、狗、水獺、鼬鼠等等。當他給了這些書中角色相關的動物外號後，這些角色似乎就活靈活現了起來。

台灣目前還沒有出中譯本。這本書的用字不難，要直接讀英文版的應該難度也不高。
我在Amazon上找到這個版本的封面，覺得這個封面最優，但我想台灣應該買不到。