The Ghost Road is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1995 and winner of the Booker Prize. It is the third volume of a trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World War. The other books in the trilogy are Regeneration and The Eye in the Door.

The war poet Siegfried Sassoon, who appears as a major character in the first book, Regeneration, is relegated to a minor role in this final volume, in which the main players are the fictional working-class officer, Billy Prior, and the real-life psychoanalyst, William Rivers. Thus Barker explores possible relationships between real people and fictional characters.

[edit] Plot summary

Prior, despite his new-found peace of mind and engagement to munitions worker Sarah, has been affected by the war and therefore does not have a lot of concern for his safety. Going along with this theme, he has a lot of risky sexual encounters; his only rule is that he never pays for sex - a rule he eventually breaks. This episode is a symbolic capitulation to the inevitability of his death at the Western Front, a fate he shares with the poet, Wilfred Owen.

Rivers, concerned for Prior's safety, finally recognises that his relationship with Prior, and his other patients for that matter, is deeply paternal. In contrast with upper-class officers like Sassoon, with whom Rivers has been able to form warm friendships, he has always found Prior a thorn in his side. As Prior returns to the front, Rivers reminisces uncomfortably about his childhood and research expeditions as a young anthropologist.

成名前“靠退稿笺打发日子”的女作家帕特·巴克（Ｐａｔ Ｂａｒｋｅｒ）意外赢获今年的英国布克小说奖，令英伦书界倍感惊奇，因为获奖名单揭晓前被认为最有望中奖的应该是９月间推出新作《摩尔人最后的叹息》（ｔｈｅ Ｍｏｏｒ’ｓ Ｌａｓｔ Ｓｉｇｎ）的小说家萨尔曼·拉什迪（Ｓａｌｍａｎ Ｒｕｓｈｄｉｅ）。

１９４３年出生于英格兰北方的巴克出身劳动阶层，曾就读于伦敦经济学院，从事文学创作前以教书为业。其祖母、母亲和姐姐都是吃苦耐劳的清洁工，从小由开小食店的祖父母养大的巴克对英国劳动妇女有着深厚情感，自１９８２年出版处女作《联盟街》（Ｕｎｉｏｎ Ｓｔｒｅｅｔ）后，她一直以劳动妇女的悲惨命运为题材进行写作，相继写出了《炸塌你的房子》（Ｂｌｏｗ Ｙｏｕｒ Ｈｏｕｓｅ Ｄｏｗｎ）和《世纪的女儿》（Ｔｈｅ Ｃｅｎｔｕｒｙ’ｓ Ｄａｕｇｈ－ｔｅｒ）等小说。她于１９９１年起开始以第一次世界大战为背景写作，先后出版了《再生》（Ｒｅｇｅｎｅｒａｔｉｏｎ）、《门里的眼睛》（ｔｈｅ Ｅｙｅ Ｉｎ ｔｈｅ Ｄｏｏｒ）和《幽灵之路》（Ｔｈｅ Ｇｈｏｓｔ Ｒｏａｄ）小说三部曲。今年出版的《幽灵之路》为她赢得了众所瞩目的布克奖，并获得２万英镑奖金。她认为，创作此小说目的并不是让人们感受战争的恐怖，而是要人们思考为什么会发生战争以及战火带给人类社会的灾祸。她说，作品是受当年参加过战争的祖父激发而写就。

巴克是继Ａ．Ｓ拜阿特（Ａ．Ｓ Ｂｙａｔｔ）１９９０年获布克奖以后，又一个获此奖的女小说家。她在英国文坛甚有影响，处女作《联盟街》曾被改编成电影《斯坦利和艾丽丝》（Ｓｔａｎｌｅｙ Ａｎｄ Ｉｒｉｓ），由著名影星简·方达和罗伯特·德尼罗主演。今年与她同获布克奖提名的除拉什迪外，还有３年前的布克奖得主巴里·昂斯沃思（Ｂａｒｒｙ Ｕｎｓｗｏｒｔｈ）、澳大利亚小说家蒂姆·温顿（Ｔｉｍ Ｗｉｎｔｍ）和南非作家贾斯廷·卡特赖特（Ｊｕｓｔｉｎ Ｃａｒｔｗｒｉｇｈｔ）。

全称布克·麦康奈尔小说奖（Ｂｏｏｋｅｒ Ｍｃ－Ｃｏｎｎｅｌｌ Ｐｒｉｚｅ ｆｏｒ Ｆｉｃｔｉｏｎ）的布克奖设立于１９６９年，评奖经费由英国布克·麦康奈尔跨国公司提供，由５位资深文学评论家组成的评委对每年在英国和英联邦国家内用英文出版的小说进行评选，初次选出１４１部，经过评委６个月审读，再推举出６部（有时可达８部）入围终评，最后评出一名获奖者，奖金２万英镑。

年选一次的布克奖虽常因评奖结果引起争议，但也因其得奖作家的非凡功力而被认为当今英伦最有权威性的文学大奖，历届得主中不乏获奖后又获诺贝尔文学奖的纳丁·戈迪默和威廉·戈尔丁，以及因作品被拍成电影而名扬全球的实力派作家，比如《辛德勒名单》作者汤姆斯·基尼利和《余日残恋》作者石黑一雄。

Pat Barker

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Pat Barker (born May 8 1943[1]) is an English writer and historian. She published her first novel, Union Street, in 1982 and has since won critical acclaim for her First World War series, the Regeneration trilogy, a fictionalised account of the wartime experiences of the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, the psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers, and the fictional protagonist, Lt. Billy Prior. The final book in the trilogy, The Ghost Road, won the Booker Prize upon its publication.

In 1965 Barker completed a degree in international history at the London School of Economics[2] and subsequently studied at Durham University marrying David Barker, a now retired Zoology Professor at the institution. Their daughter Anna Ralph published her own novel The Floating Island (Hutchinson, ISBN 10: 0091795559) in 2007.

Barker's biographer is Sharon Montieth.[3].

[edit] Books

Union Street (1982)

Blow Your House Down (1984)

The Century's Daughter (also known as Liza's England; 1986)

The Man Who Wasn't There (1989)

Regeneration Trilogy :

Regeneration (1991)

The Eye in the Door (1993)

The Ghost Road (1995)

Another World (1998)

Border Crossing (2001)

Double Vision (2003)

Life Class (2007)