The city is Macao, the Portuguese settlement on the China Coast, as it was more than 200 years ago. The promises are those made by Englishmen to marry their Macao mistresses, only to leave them abandoned and their children bastards. Martha Merop and her English lover are unique in this period. He, son of the founder of Lloyd’s and cousin of the philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, was one of the first merchants to oppose the trade in opium. She, Chinese, abandoned at birth and sold into prostitution at the age of thirteen, became an international trader in her own right, the richest woman on the China Coast and Macao’s greatest public benefactress. This moving novel that captures the time and place so convincingly is a historical reconstruction of the years 1780 to 1795 when the two were together. It is based on oral tradition handed down through generations in Macao, and on documents that survive about them in Macao, Lisbon and London. Austin Coates identified Martha Merop’s lover, about whom little was known. The documents about him confirmed the traditional Macao story, and the outcome was this book.
作者簡介
AUSTIN COATES
Austin Coates (1922–97), a former senior British civil servant in Hong Kong, Malaya, and Sarawak, left government service at age forty to pursue a professional writing career. Widely regarded as the most distinguished English-language author in Hong Kong, Coates remained a long-time Hong Kong resident, later dividing his time between Hong Kong and Portugal, where he died. The City of Broken Promises is a companion to his two other books on Macao: A Macao Narrative and Macao and the British. Both these books and his other novel, The Road, are also available in the Echoes series from Hong Kong University Press.
我是一個對懸疑和陰謀論情節特彆感興趣的讀者,《City of Broken Promises》這個名字瞬間勾起瞭我的好奇心。我猜想,這很可能是一個關於權力、背叛和復仇的故事,在某個充滿陰影的都市背景下展開。也許會有一個精心設計的謎團,需要層層剝繭纔能找到真相,而那些“破碎的承諾”則可能是解開謎團的關鍵綫索。我期待著作者能夠構建一個邏輯嚴謹、反轉不斷的劇情,讓我在閱讀過程中始終保持高度的緊張感和期待感。同時,我也希望書中的人物能夠塑造得立體飽滿,他們的動機和行為都經得起推敲,而不是簡單的臉譜化。我希望能看到一群在道德邊緣遊走的角色,在利益和良知之間進行艱難的權衡。
评分我最近一直在尋找一本能夠觸動我內心深處的作品,《City of Broken Promises》這個標題引起瞭我的共鳴。它讓我聯想到生活中那些未能實現的夢想,那些被遺忘的誓言,那些因為各種原因而變得遙不可及的希望。我期待這本書能夠探討人性中的脆弱、孤獨與渴望,通過細膩的情感描寫,讓我們看到個體在命運麵前的無力與掙紮。或許,這座“破碎之城”象徵著我們內心深處的某種狀態,而那些“破碎的承諾”則是我們曾經為自己許下的、卻最終未能兌現的諾言。我希望能從中找到一種慰藉,或者是一種對生活更深刻的理解。我期待作者能夠用優美的文字,將這份復雜的情感娓娓道來。
评分這本書的封麵設計就充滿瞭神秘感,暗色調的城市剪影,仿佛隱藏著無數秘密,讓我立刻被吸引瞭。我一直都很喜歡那種氛圍感十足的故事,而《City of Broken Promises》恰好滿足瞭我對這種期待。從書名本身就能感受到一種宿命感和悲劇色彩,讓人不禁好奇,這座城市究竟承載瞭多少破碎的承諾,又隱藏瞭怎樣的故事?我非常期待它能夠帶領我走進一個錯綜復雜的世界,感受角色的掙紮與抉擇。我希望這本書能在情感深度和敘事張力上都有所突破,能夠讓我讀完後久久不能平靜。當然,我更希望作者能在細節的刻畫上做到極緻,讓這座“破碎之城”不僅僅是一個背景,更能成為一個活生生、有呼吸的有機體,讓讀者仿佛置身其中,親身去感受它的喜怒哀樂。
评分我特彆喜歡那些具有獨特世界觀和宏大設定的作品,《City of Broken Promises》這個書名給我一種都市奇幻或者架空曆史的感覺。我好奇這座“破碎之城”是否擁有與眾不同的規則和秩序,又或是隱藏著某種超自然的力量。我期待作者能夠構建一個充滿想象力的世界,讓我在閱讀中感受到新鮮感和驚喜。也許,這座城市本身就是一個巨大的謎團,而那些“破碎的承諾”則與某種古老傳說或禁忌有關。我希望能看到作者在世界觀的設定上獨具匠心,並且能夠將故事巧妙地融入其中,讓讀者在沉浸於故事的同時,也能被這個獨特的世界所吸引。
评分作為一個對社會現實題材作品情有獨鍾的讀者,《City of Broken Promises》這個書名讓我聯想到那些在現實生活中被忽視的角落,那些被遺忘的群體,那些被壓抑的聲音。我猜想,這本書可能是在探討社會問題,例如貧富差距、階級固化、或者人與人之間的冷漠與疏離。那些“破碎的承諾”或許是對美好生活的嚮往,是對公平正義的期盼,卻最終在現實的洪流中被無情地碾碎。我期待作者能夠用犀利的筆觸,揭示社會現實的殘酷,同時也能展現齣人性的光輝與堅韌。我希望這本書能夠引發我的思考,讓我對身處的社會有更深刻的認識。
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