New Zealand Celebrates Booker Win

新西兰28岁女作家获布克奖

At 28 years old, Eleanor Catton is the youngest person to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction. But in her home country of New Zealand, it's not her age but her passport that has made her a national treasure overnight.

仅28岁的卡顿(Eleanor Catton)是具有崇高声望的小说奖项布克奖(Man Booker Prize)最年轻的获奖者。但在她的祖国新西兰，她之所以一夜之间成为国宝级人物，并非是因为她年轻，而是因为她的国籍。

'This is a hugely significant achievement on the world stage for a New Zealander, ' Prime Minister John Key said in a statement after news that Ms. Catton's second novel, 'The Luminaries, ' had won the international literary award.

卡顿的第二本小说《发光体》(The Luminaries)赢得这项国际文学奖的消息传出后，新西兰总理约翰·基(John Key)在一份声明中说，这是新西兰人在世界舞台上的一个极其重大的成就。

Ms. Catton, who was born in Canada but raised in New Zealand, is only the second Booker laureate to hail from the small island nation. The first, Keri Hulme, won the prize in 1985 for her novel 'The Bone People.'

卡顿生于加拿大，但在新西兰长大，是这个面积不大的岛国第二位荣膺布克奖的人。第一位是胡姆(Keri Hulme)，1985年凭借小说《骨人》(The Bone People)获得布克奖。

Set in 19th-century New Zealand during the country's gold rush, 'The Luminaries' is both a ghost story and a thriller. It spans more than 800 pages and is the longest book to have scooped the Booker, whose winner receives £50, 000 (about $80, 000). (Hillary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall, ' which set the record when it won in 2009, was more than 600 pages.)

《发光体》的故事背景是19世纪淘金热时期的新西兰，是一本鬼怪和惊悚题材的小说。这本书篇幅超过800页，是布克奖篇幅最长的作品。布克奖得主将获得5万英镑（约8万美元）的奖金。（曼特尔(Hillary Mantel)的《狼厅》(Wolf Hall) 2009年获奖时曾创下最长篇幅作品的纪录，该书为600多页。）

Its title refers to the astrological term for the sun and the moon, the brightest objects in the sky. Astrology is a central theme in the book, whose structure is dependent on the signs of the Zodiac.

《发光体》的书名指的是太阳和月亮在占星学中的说法，它们是天空中最明亮的物体。占星学是这本书的主题，它的主要内容依赖于十二星座的含义。

On accepting the Booker at an awards ceremony in London, Ms. Catton described the novel as 'a publisher's nightmare, ' noting that its 'shape and form...made certain kinds of editorial suggestions not only mathematically impossible, but even more egregious, astrologically impossible.'

在伦敦的颁奖典礼上接受布克奖时，卡顿说这本书是出版商的噩梦，说它的形态让某些编辑建议不仅在数学上无法实现，甚至在更惊人的方面、从占星的角度来说也是不可能的。

Despite the author's youth, this is not her first literary achievement. Her first novel, 'The Rehearsal, ' was longlisted for the Orange Prize and shortlisted for the Guardian's first book award in 2009.

尽管这位作者年纪轻轻，但这本书并不是她的首个文学成就。她的第一部小说《彩排》(The Rehearsal)入围橘子小说奖(Orange Prize)，并进入《卫报》(Guardian) 2009年的首作奖最终候选名单。

Alongside writing her own books, Ms. Catton is a teacher of creative writing at Manukau Institute of Technology in Auckland. Her colleagues and students, who watched a live feed of the award ceremony this morning on campus, were jubilant at the prize announcement.

除了写自己的书，卡顿还在奥克兰的马努卡理工学院(Manukau Institute of Technology)任创意写作教师。她的同事和学生周三上午在校园里观看了颁奖典礼的实时直播，在奖项宣布时都欢呼不已。

'It's amazing, it's magic for Eleanor, ' said Robert Sullivan, the institute's head of creative writing. He added that Ms. Catton's students have all had 'their sights raised' thanks to her achievement.

马努卡理工学院的创意写作专业负责人沙利文(Robert Sullivan)说，这真是太惊人了，简直不可思议。他还说，卡顿的学生都因她的成就而提升了眼界。

While Ms. Catton was born in Canada, she returned with her parents to New Zealand at the age of six. She grew up in the country's second largest city of Christchurch, attending the local university and gaining a bachelor's degree in English.

虽然卡顿出生于加拿大，但她六岁时就回到新西兰的父母身边。她在新西兰第二大城市克赖斯特彻奇(Christchurch)长大，进入了当地的大学，并获得了英语专业的学士学位。

She then completed a Master's in Creative Writing at Victoria University of Wellington, whose press published 'The Luminaries' in New Zealand. Granta Books published the book in the U.K.

随后她在惠灵顿维多利亚大学(Victoria University of Wellington)完成了创意写作的硕士学业。这所大学的出版社在新西兰出版了《发光体》。Granta Books在英国出版了这本书。

'We have been shaking with excitement all morning here, ' Victoria University Press said in a statement.

维多利亚大学出版社(Victoria University Press)在一份声明中说，我们整个上午都兴奋得直发抖。

Ms. Catton is the last author to win the Man Booker Prize under its original rules, which restricted entries to writers from the British Commonwealth and Ireland. The organizers announced last month that this geographical restriction had been lifted, so long as the writers' work is in English and published in the U.K. The move has drawn criticism from some members of the literary establishment, including former Booker winner Julian Barnes.

卡顿是最后一位依照布克奖最初的规则获得该奖的作家，其限定只有英联邦国家和爱尔兰的作者才有资格入围。布克奖组织者上个月宣布，这一地域限制已经被取消，只要作者的作品为英语并在英国出版就有入围资格。这一举措招致了一些文学界大人物的批评，包括曾获布克奖的巴恩斯(Julian Barnes)。