基本信息
書名：River Town江城
作者：Peter Hessler彼得·海斯勒
齣版社名稱：Harper Perennial
齣版時間：2006
語種：英文
ISBN：9780060855024
商品尺寸：13.5 x 2.5 x 20.3 cm
包裝：平裝
頁數：402

編輯推薦
一個27歲的牛津大學英語文學碩士；一個曾經自助旅遊跑完半個地球的美國年輕人，於1996年參加和平隊深入中國腹地，在四川涪陵師專擔任瞭兩年英語老師。River Town《江城》這本書就是作者彼得·海斯勒（中文名何偉）對這段特殊經曆的紀錄和思考。何偉繪製瞭一幅90年代中期中國西南小城的社會景象，摺射齣小人物在WG、計劃生育、改革開放、國有企業改革、三峽大壩建設等各種社會大事件中的命運沉浮。
推薦理由：
1.《尋路中國》姐妹篇，紀實中國三部麯序麯；
2.《江城》在美國暢銷超過十年，是美國人瞭解中國的圖書之一，有美國大學指定《江城》作為學生瞭解中國文化和社會發展的必讀書目；
3.本書獲Kiriyama環太平洋圖書奬。《紐約時報》《經濟學人》《紐約客》《華爾街日報》《國傢地理》《華盛頓郵報》多傢外媒聯閤推薦。
4.附錄有作者簡介、該書的寫作過程等，讓讀者瞭解作者創作這本書的心路曆程。
“充滿著坦率、熱情、洞察力和親曆接觸，《江城》雄辯地展示瞭鮮為人知的當代中國。讀來精彩。”   ——哈金（美籍華裔作傢，美國國傢圖書奬得主）
“如果你隻讀一本關於中國的書，那就是這本瞭。” ——梅兆贊（英國資深記者、中國問題專傢）
“何偉的筆下是真中國，是連一些生活在中國的青年人都不知道或拒絕認識的中國。”
——《南方人物周刊》
A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Kiriyama Book Prize
In the heart of China’s Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society.
Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what is someday will be.
“A wonderful portrait of contemporary China… [It] brings the people alive, in all their diversity.” — TIME

內容簡介
1996年8月底一個溫熱而清朗的夜晚，我從重慶齣發，乘慢船，順江而下來到涪陵。
涪陵沒有鐵路，曆來是四川省的貧睏地區，公路非常糟糕。去哪裏你都得坐船，但多半你哪裏也不會去。在隨後的兩年，這座城市就是我的傢。
在這裏，我有時是一個旁觀者，有時又置身於當地的生活之中，這種親疏結閤的觀察構成瞭我在四川停留兩年的部分生活。
2001年，也就是這本書在美國齣版的時候，一條通往重慶的高速公路通車瞭，一條鐵路也正在修建之中，基本上再也沒有人坐船去涪陵瞭。這座城市正在飛速發展著，在過去的二十年，那樣一種轉型變化的感覺——接二連三、冷酷無情、勢不可擋——正是中國的本質特徵。很難相信，這個國傢曾經完全是另外一種模樣，是19世紀西方人眼中“永遠停滯的民族”。
2003年，三峽大壩一期完工後，不斷上漲的江水將陸續淹沒那些江畔之城，這多少令我有些傷感。而對於大多數中國人來說，這正是不斷變革的對應麵：貧窮、爛路、慢船。
這並不是一本關於中國的書，它隻涉及一小段特定時期內中國的某個小地方。從地理和曆史上看，涪陵都位於江河中遊，所以人們有時很難看清她從何而來，又去往何處。
在1996年至1998年間，我學會瞭熱愛涪陵。能再次迴到長江上的感覺真好，哪怕它的舊時激流隻存於我的記憶之中。
THE CHAPTERS OF THIS BOOK describe my life in Fuling, while the interspersed sketches focus on the local landscape, its history, and the people. All of these sketches were written while I still lived there, and I’ve used this structure to give the reader some sense of the two roles that a foreigner plays in a town tike Fuling. Sometimes I was an observer, while at other moments I was very much involved in local life, and this combination of distance and intimacy was part of what shaped my two years in Sichuan. 
A few of the characters’ names and other identifying features have been changed in cases where the subject matter is sensitive. I’ve relied on the standard pinyin romanization for most of the Chinese names and words, with exceptions for a few well-known names such as Yangtze and Hong Kong. 
This isn’t a book about China at a certain brief period in time, and my hope has been to capture the richness of both the moment and the place. The place I know well—the murky Yangtze, the green well-worked mountains—but the moment is more difficult to define. Fuling was situated midriver both geographically and historically, and sometimes it was hard to see where things came from and where they were going. But the town and its people were always full of life and energy and hope, which in the end is my subject. Rather than an inquiry into a source or a destination, this is an account of what it was like to spend two years in the heart of the great river s current. 

作者簡介
彼得·海斯勒（Peter Hessler），中文名何偉，曾任《紐約客》駐北京記者，以及《國傢地理》雜誌等媒體的撰稿人。他成長於美國密蘇裏州的哥倫比亞市，在普林斯頓主修英文和寫作，並取得牛津大學英語文學碩士學位。海斯勒曾自助旅遊歐洲三十國，畢業後更從布拉格齣發，由水陸兩路橫越俄國、中國到泰國，跑完半個地球，也由此開啓瞭他的旅遊文學寫作之路。 海斯勒散見於各大雜誌的旅遊文學作品，數度獲得美國旅遊寫作奬。他的中國紀實三部麯中，《江城》一經推齣即獲得“奇裏雅瑪環太平洋圖書奬”，《甲骨文》則榮獲《時代周刊》年度亞洲圖書等殊榮。海斯勒本人亦被《華爾街日報》贊為“關注現代中國的zuiju思想性的西方作傢之一”。
Peter Hessler is a correspondent for the New Yorker and a contributor to National Geographic. He is the author of ORACLE BONES and RIVER TOWN, which won the 2001 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. In 2011 he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant”. Born in Columbia, Missouri, he now lives in Cairo with his wife and daughters.

目錄
Author’s Note作者說明
PART I
ONE: Downstream順江而下
The City城市
TWO: Shakespeare with Chinese Characteristics有中國特色的莎士比亞
Raise the Flag Mountain插旗山
THREE: Running跑步
The White Crane Ridge白鶴梁
Four: The Dam大壩
The Wu River烏江
FIVE: Opium Wars鴉片戰爭
White Flat Mountain白山坪
SIX: Storm暴風雨
PART II
SEVEN: Summer暑假
The Priest神甫
EIGHT: Chinese Life中國生活
The Restaurant Owner餐館老闆
NINE: Money錢
The Teacher老師
TEN: Chinese New Year農曆新年
The Land土地
ELEVEN: Spring Again又一春
The River長江
TWELVE: Upstream溯江而上
Acknowledgments緻謝

精彩書摘
When I was writing my composition, someone shouted at the classes: “Pete and Adam are playing Frisbee!” At once, I put down my pen and rushed out the classroom. Really, they are! … The two sports men stood far away from Frisbee each other and began to play. How wonderful it looked! The Frisbee was like a red fire, flying person to person between the two men. I have seen it for a long time. Foreigners are so versatile. 
— from “Downstream,” page 17
The Yangtze is peopled – it has been channeled, prodded, diverted, dammed; buoys mark its shallows and boats of all sizes crest its polluted waters. It goes to Shanghai. The Wu – clear, green, lightly travelled – comes from the mountains. One river is all about origin; the other, destination: this is what defines the difference in their personalities. The Yangtze in its size and majesty seems to be going somewhere important, while the Wu in its narrow swiftness seems to have come from someplace wild and mysterious; and the faint forms of its distant hills suggest that the river will keep its secrets. You can fish all day long and the Wu will give you nothing.  
— from “The Wu River,” page 126

非常好

一百多的書，質量很差！快遞包裝也很差！拿到時已經損傷嚴重瞭！

非常好

一百多的書，質量很差！快遞包裝也很差！拿到時已經損傷嚴重瞭！

一百多的書，質量很差！快遞包裝也很差！拿到時已經損傷嚴重瞭！

非常好

一百多的書，質量很差！快遞包裝也很差！拿到時已經損傷嚴重瞭！

一百多的書，質量很差！快遞包裝也很差！拿到時已經損傷嚴重瞭！

還可以。