The Story of a Goat
タミル・ナードゥの農村で、見知らぬ巨人めいた男から弱々しい黒い子山羊を託された老夫婦が、その山羊プーナーチを育てていく物語。山羊の感覚を通して、干ばつや飢え、家畜をめぐる行政、カーストや色をめぐる序列が、牧歌的な日々の背後にひそむ不穏さとして浮かび上がる。
作品情報
小さな黒山羊の一生が、弱きものを守るはずの世界の冷たさと、そこに残る愛情の瞬間を映し出す。
ペルマール・ムルガン『The Story of a Goat』は、N・カリヤン・ラマン訳によるタミル語小説の英訳版。物語は、夕暮れの村に現れた謎めいた男が、死にそうな黒い子山羊を農夫に渡すところから始まる。老夫婦にプーナーチと名づけられた山羊は、喜び、恐れ、出産、喪失を経験しながら成長する。動物の視点を借りた寓話でありながら、作品は南インドの農村に生きる人々と家畜の結びつき、弱者を管理する制度、飢えや干ばつの現実を静かに照らし出す。
レビュー要約
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読者からは、山羊を語り手に据えた親しみやすさと、農村の貧困や行政の不条理を見せる寓話性が支持されている。愛らしい場面の一方で悲しみや過酷さが強く、結末の重さに戸惑う反応もある。
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書評では、プーナーチの内面を生き生きと描きながら、村の生活と権力構造を想像力豊かに結びつける点が評価されている。素朴な動物譚に見える物語が、弱者の生存をめぐる社会批評へ広がることが強みとされている。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Grove Press, Black Cat
- 発売日
- 2019-12-10
- ページ数
- 192ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 13.97 x 1.27 x 20.96 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780802147516
- ISBN-10
- 0802147518
- 価格
- 3380 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/British/Humor & Satire
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE From one of India’s best-known writers and the author of the National Book Award-longlisted One Part Woman comes a charming and surprising tale of an orphaned goat and the family that decides to take care of her, despite the potential cost to them. As he did in the award-winning One Part Woman , in his newest novel, The Story of a Goat , Perumal Murugan explores a side of India that is rarely considered in the West: the rural lives of the country’s farming community. He paints a bucolic yet sometimes menacing portrait, showing movingly how danger and deception can threaten the lives of the weakest through the story of a helpless young animal lost in a world it naively misunderstands. As the novel opens, a farmer in Tamil Nadu is watching the sunset over his village one quiet evening when a mysterious stranger, a giant man who seems more than human, appears on the horizon. He offers the farmer a black goat kid who is the runt of the litter, surely too frail to survive. The farmer and his wife take care of the young she-goat, whom they name Poonachi, and soon the little goat is bounding with joy and growing at a rate they think miraculous for such a small animal. Intoxicating passages from the goat’s perspective offer a bawdy and earthy view of what it means to be an animal and a refreshing portrayal of the natural world. But Poonachi’s life is not destined to be a rural idyll—dangers can lurk around every corner, and may sometimes come from surprising places, including a government that is supposed to protect the weak and needy. Is this little goat too humble a creature to survive such a hostile world? With allegorical resonance for contemporary society and examining hierarchies of caste and color, The Story of the Goat is a provocative but heartwarming fable from a world-class storyteller who is finally achieving recognition outside his home country.
PERUMAL MURUGAN is one of India’s most well-known literary writers. He has written ten novels and five collections each of short stories and poetry. His best-known novel One Part Woman was longlisted for the inaugural National Book Award for Translation, and it won the prestigious ILF Samanvay Bhasha Samman for writing in Indian languages and the Translation Prize from India’s National Academy of Letters.
レビュー
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I like this Book very much
It was heart breaking to read it at the same time it was very human. It shows pain and happines not only on humans but in animals to. I will recommend every one to read it.
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The culture of India and goats
I loved the book. It offers a look at how people survive under severe lack of rainfall. Everything is sacrificed for survival. The narrator is a goat that is has been presented to the old couple with the promise that she will give birth to 7 kids at a time. The couple reluctantly raise the nanny kid must be fed while sacrificing food from the owners and their other goats. The old woman becomes very attached to the goat, seeing it as another child. The struggle also tells about the structure of government and how it provides some help to the poor but never,enough. I became engrossed in the story, although I should warn readers, tragedy is always present.
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Sad and tender
Poonachi could be anyone living in India or elsewhere in a place with many needs. The book describes a tough reality many people live in. Good book, made me think a lot and feel many emotions.
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this is the first and last time i will read this book
i fell in love with poonachi. she will always have a place in my heart. she is precious and loveable and cute. i did not care for the parts when they would tie up the goats. poor baby and her babies. there were many times when i wanted to stop reading the book i continued just the same. i loved the fact that were called '' the old woman'' and the old man'' were their names. even when things were good for her i still felt sad. and after all that ... what a stupid ending.
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Cute story
Easy read.
関連する文学賞
- ナショナル・ブック賞（翻訳文学） 第3回（2020年） ・Longlisted