間諜小說大師勒卡雷的唯一自傳

　　☆《冷戰諜魂》裡利馬斯、《榮譽學生》中的傑里‧威斯特貝……令人難忘的悲劇英雄經典角色的原型
　　☆《女鼓手》中的以巴對抗、《蘇聯司》裡蘇聯的改革開放……故事靈感來源與取材經過
　　☆勒卡雷與諾貝爾文學獎最近的距離
　　☆接觸戰地、戰地記者、反抗軍、恐怖分子、情報頭子的實際親身經歷
　　☆間諜小說的真實與虛構……
　　所謂愛國與叛國的一線之隔，間諜任務與作家的良心拉扯，盡在其中。

　　——嚴格來說它甚至不像一本自傳，至少不是你我想像中那種、從童年經驗娓娓道來，一直講述到他如何踏進又離開英國情報單位、如何靠著寫作功成名就的制式自傳。

　　在全書的38個章節，如果加上序和前言的話，勒卡雷約莫就是訴說了人生中最令他印象深刻、影響他寫作至深的40段經歷——

　　比方與戰地記者大衛‧葛林威溜進烽火漫天的金邊（間諜小說家說這是他第一次真實感到子彈從頭上飛過），在那裡大衛／勒卡雷結識了英勇的法國女子伊薇特•皮耶波利，她與情人在金邊開運輸公司，平常用飛機運毒品或寶石，戰時偷渡烽火孤兒出來並為他們向法國領事館申請庇護——他們全是她生的孩子，都是法國人，她堅稱——這段經歷提供了他《榮譽學生》裡的一個角色、一段場景，伊薇特的人生則催生了他動人的《永遠的園丁》女主角。

　　諸如此類的故事，有些令人感到驚奇、不可思議，有些令人潸然淚下或呀然失笑——訪談遭美國刑求關押、最後無罪開釋，與《頭號要犯》男主角命運相似的所謂「伊斯蘭恐怖分子」、親眼直擊《使命曲》裡非洲軍閥角力真實情況、《蘇聯司》裡俄羅斯改革開放經驗的觸發……作家的生命與經歷，和他關注的戰爭、歷史重疊；倘若他的小說是真實世界不為人知、黑暗的那一面，他的自傳便是真實人生與黑暗世界的灰色重疊。

　　40段經歷中，勒卡雷無可避免地以頗具分量的篇幅寫下了他的童年——他身為騙徒的父親、感情冷漠的母親——

　　「逃避與欺騙是我童年非有不可的武器。青少年時期，我們都是某種間諜，而我卻早已是退役的老兵。情報世界擁我入懷的時候，感覺就像回到家一樣。」

　　——首度談到自己對世紀間諜金•費爾比的看法；他諸多個性鮮明、設定生動的角色來源，他的小說改編成電視電影的經歷，與好萊塢知名演員、導演、編劇打過的交道……

　　「格雷安‧葛林告訴我們，童年是作家的存款簿。若以此來計算，我生來就是個百萬富翁。」

　　——這次，我們終於有機會看到文學界的百萬富翁與成功企業家，向世人分享他最珍貴的財富。

　　本文取自木馬文化出版《此生如鴿：間諜小說大師勒卡雷的40個人生片羽》

　　THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

　　'Out of the secret world I once knew, I have tried to make a theatre for the larger worlds we inhabit. First comes the imagining, then the search for reality. Then back to the imagining, and to the desk where I'm sitting now.'

　　From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion, to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, John le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive - reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Whether he's writing about the parrot at a Beirut hotel that could perfectly mimic machine gun fire, or visiting Rwanda's museums of the unburied dead in the aftermath of the genocide, or celebrating New Year's Eve with Yasser Arafat, or interviewing a German terrorist in her desert prison in the Negev, or watching Alec Guinness preparing for his role as George Smiley, or describing the female aid worker who inspired the main character in his The Constant Gardener, le Carré endows each happening with vividness and humour, now making us laugh out loud, now inviting us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood. Best of all, le Carré gives us a glimpse of a writer's journey over more than six decades, and his own hunt for the human spark that has given so much life and heart to his fictional characters.

　　'No other writer has charted - pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers - the public and secret histories of his times' Guardian

　　'John le Carré is as recognizable a writer as Dickens or Austen' Financial Times

　　'When I was under house arrest I was helped by the books of John le Carré ... they were a journey into the wider world ... These were the journeys that made me feel that I was not really cut off from the rest of humankind' Aung San Suu Kyi