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Children's Novel Tells Taliban Tale(2001/11/05)

《養家的人》：為孩子們講述塔利班的故事(2001/11/05)

Parents and teachers struggling to explain the war in Afghanistan can call on a new novel to help children picture life under the Taliban.

Billed as the only children's novel on the subject, The Breadwinner follows 11-year-old Parvana as she struggles to avoid beatings, bombings and death by starvation.

``The Breadwinner is a powerful depiction of life under the Taliban regime, told honestly and directly, in a way children will really understand,'' said the publishers.

Aimed at nine to 12-year-olds, it depicts Parvana masquerading as a boy -- women and children must stay home in hardline Afghanistan -- as she gathers food for her starving family following her father's arrest by the ruling Taliban.

Although written before the current conflict began, the survival story has all the land mines, beatings, brutality and restrictions familiar to Afghans today.

``Bombs had been part of Parvana's whole life. Every day, every night, rockets would fall out of the sky, and someone's house would explode,'' reads one passage in the book, written by Canadian author Deborah Ellis, a 41-year-old counselor in Toronto, who had paid frequent visits to refugee camps in Pakistan during Afghanistan's 20 years of conflict.

``When the bombs fell, people ran. First they ran one way, then they ran another, trying to find a place where the bombs wouldn't find them.''

On one trip, Ellis heard of a girl who had cut off her hair, wore boy's clothes and worked in a market to support her mother and sisters -- just like the heroine in The Breadwinner.

In the novel, 11-year-old Parvana must avoid land mines and suffer beatings at the hand of the Taliban.

``We owe it to our children to be honest about the world and to provide them with material written specially for them,'' Ellis said.

Oxford University Press said it rushed publication after worried parents, teachers and librarians struggled to answer children's questions in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

(Agencies)

美國和阿富汗塔利班的戰爭正在激烈的進行著，面對孩子們對于這場戰爭的提問，家長和老師們往往不知該如何做答。不過現在有一本名為《養家的人》（The Breadwinner）的兒童讀物描述了在塔利班政權下掙扎求生的人們的生活，可以幫助解答孩子們的問題了。

這本書的招貼廣告上宣傳說這是唯一的關于阿富汗戰爭的兒童讀物。主人公是一個名叫帕爾瓦娜的11歲的小女孩。該書描寫了帕爾瓦娜在暴力、炸彈和饑荒中苦苦求生的故事。

該書的出版商稱："《養家的人》有力地展示了塔利班政權下人們的生活，書中的描寫真實、直接，真正做到了讓孩子們容易讀懂。"

這本書面向的讀者群是9到12歲之間的孩子，（和小主人的同齡的小讀者）。因為在阿富汗，婦女和兒童是不允許出門的，所以在父親被塔利班抓走之后，帕爾瓦娜只好裝扮成一個男孩子，出去尋找食物來養活自己正在挨餓的一家人。

雖然這本書在美國和阿富汗這場戰爭爆發之前就完成了，但這本講述主人公生存故事的書中所描寫的情景"到處是地雷、笞打、暴力和清規戒律"，與如今的阿富汗的實際情況相差無幾。

該書的作者加拿大人德博拉·埃利斯在書中寫道："炸彈早已成為帕爾瓦娜生活的一部分。每天每夜都會有導彈從天而降，都會有民房被炸。"現年41歲的埃利斯是多倫多的一名法律顧問，在阿富汗20年的內戰期間，他曾經先后多次親自到巴基斯坦的難民營考察。

埃利斯在書中寫道："當炸彈從天而降的時候，人們四散逃生。開始大家還是往同一個方向跑，但是隨后就亂了陣腳，為了找個地方躲避頭頂的炸彈，人們朝著各個方向亂跑。"

在一次對難民營的考察中，埃利斯聽說了這樣一件事：有一個小女孩為了養活她的母親和姐妹，剪掉了頭發，穿上男孩子的衣服，每天在市場上辛苦的工作。這就是《養家的人》這本書主人公的原形。

在這本小說中，11歲的帕爾瓦娜每天必須要躲避地雷，忍受塔利班分子的笞打。

埃利斯說："我們有義務讓孩子們了解這個世界，而且有義務讓孩子們看到專門為他們而寫的書。"

牛津大學出版社說，9·11恐怖事件發生后，憂心如焚的家長、老師和圖書館已經不能招架孩子們對于這場戰爭的強烈好奇心了，因此他們正在加緊趕印《養家的人》。

(中國日報網站譯）

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