The Hill

苏珊娜·克莱因还在襁褓之中时，她的母亲在一个清晨起身，与一群激进分子同伴去抢银行。如今，每到星期六，苏珊娜便在监狱门口与别的孩子排成一队，个个穿戴得仿佛要去过节。监狱里有托儿所，也有墓地；有警惕的看守，也有容易走神的修女；有倒数出狱日期的女人，也有像苏珊娜母亲那样永远无法获释的女人。
苏珊娜由外婆在家抚养。外婆对女儿的罪行毫不宽恕，也拒绝去监狱探望。外婆的朋友们围绕在苏珊娜周围。她们相识于共同投身共产党的岁月，至今仍会在漫长的鸡尾酒会上争论“希特勒—斯大林条约”。这些女人曾立志改变世界，如今却在两难中挣扎：是该教会苏珊娜这世界的运行法则，还是该将她与这世界隔离开来。
苏珊娜发誓要永远回到那座监狱，而她的母亲却盼望她获得自由。哈丽特·克拉克的《山丘》是一部光芒四射的小说，讲述一个孩子在两个世界之间长大，她是三代人中的最后一人，这三代人的命运都与惩罚紧密相连。这是一个家庭因渴望变革而分崩离析的故事，以不羁的智慧和远见卓识写成。《山丘》为美国小说带来了崭新的乐章。
Suzanna Klein was a baby when her mother got up early one morning to rob a bank with a group of fellow radicals. Now, every Saturday, S uzanna lines up at the prison gates among the other children, each dressed as if for celebration. Inside there is a nursery and a cemetery; there are watchful guards and distractable nuns; there are women counting down to release and women like Suzanna’s mother, who will never be released.
At home, Suzanna is raised by her grandmother, who is entirely unforgiving of her daughter’s crime and refuses to visit the prison. Surrounding Suzanna are her grandmother’s friends, who know one another from their years in the Communist Party and still spend extended cocktail hours debating the Hitler-Stalin pact. Though these women once insisted on changing the world, they are torn between teaching Suzanna how the world works and shielding her from it.
Suzanna vows to return to the prison forever but her mother wants her to be free. Harriet Clark’s The Hill is an incandescent novel of a child growing up between worlds, the last of three generations whose fates have been tied to punishment. It is the tale of a family broken apart by the desire for change, told with irreverent wisdom and visionary force. The Hill brings new music to American fiction.