A Dog's Purpose

Name: A Dog's Purpose
ISBN: 9787540480295

W.布鲁斯·卡梅隆Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House2017

4.2

Word count: 180K words
Series: Dayu Library
ISBN: 9787540480295

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Summary

This is the Chinese translation of A Dog's Purpose, a novel by the American writer W. Bruce Cameron, and the source novel of the film A Dog's Purpose. Told from the perspective of a dog named Bailey, the book recounts his repeated returns to the world across several lifetimes: in each life, carrying remnants of memory and scent from the previous one, he grows up in a different body and a different family, experiencing companionship, guardianship, parting, and reunion, and gradually comes to understand, through his dealings with people, such questions as "purpose" and "the meaning of life"—questions humans themselves find hard to answer. The writing is light and humorous, with a dog's directness and innocence, yet it becomes especially moving in passages about loss, aging, love, and loyalty; episodes of growing up, family affection, and romantic love are reexamined through a dog's simple understanding, so the book is by turns laugh-out-loud and tear-jerking. Since its publication in the United States in 2010, the novel has appeared on several bestseller lists and been selected for American primary and secondary school reading curricula. This Chinese edition preserves the original's warm and philosophical tone, suited to savoring the companionship and trust between people and animals in leisurely reading.

Editor's review

这本书最吸引人的地方，不是它讲了“一只狗有多忠诚”，而是它选择了一个真正属于狗的视角。贝利并不懂人类复杂的心事，它靠气味分辨喜欢与不喜欢，靠奔跑感受快乐与不快乐，于是那些在人类看来沉重的东西——孤独、告别、老去——在它的描述里反而显得清澈而直接。作者卡梅隆原是美国知名专栏作家，文笔轻松、节奏明快，擅长把温情藏在笑料后面；读者常常是在被逗笑之后，忽然被某一句朴素的话击中。作为电影《一条狗的使命》的原著，小说比影像留出更多内心独白式的空间，狗对“使命”的追问贯穿全书，让一本看起来轻巧的治愈小说带上了关于生命的思考。湖南文艺出版社这个版本由王黎娜翻译，译文口语感强，符合叙事者作为狗的声音。如果你需要一本能在通勤或睡前读完一段、又不至于空落落的书，它是相当稳妥的选择。

Who it's for

A good fit for

喜欢狗、养狗，或曾与动物有过深厚感情的读者
看过电影《一条狗的使命》，想读原著补充细节的观众
想在轻度阅读中获得治愈与思考的都市读者
开始接触长篇小说的中学生及以上青少年读者

Not a good fit for

偏好硬核科幻、悬疑推理等强情节类型的读者
对动物题材或情感治愈类叙事无兴趣的读者
希望读到严谨动物行为学知识而非小说的读者

Reading tips

建议把它当作睡前或通勤的轻读物，每次读一两章，留给情绪一点回味空间。
读的时候留意叙事者作为“狗”的观察角度，很多妙处正来自它与人类理解之间的错位。
如果已经看过电影，不妨对照阅读，体会小说中内心独白与影像表达的不同。
对离别、老去等段落情绪敏感的读者，可以准备纸巾，也不必急着一次读完。

About the publisher

Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1985

Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House is a publisher known for its literary titles, with a catalogue spanning foreign literature, world classics, classical Chinese literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and mystery and detective fiction. Judging from the more than 1,100 books in the database, the press publishes foreign classics such as Crime and Punishment, Snow Country, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Letter from an Unknown Woman, as well as Chinese classical and modern literary works including Lu Xun's Wandering and A Madman's Diary and Wu Jingzi's The Scholars. In terms of translators and authors, translations by Cao Guowei and Tan Jinghua appear in its foreign literature titles, and the authors involved include Dostoevsky, Kawabata Yasunari, Conan Doyle and Zweig. Its publishing character lies in introducing Chinese and foreign literary classics side by side, balancing popular and serious works and attending to both readability and literary value. Public information is limited; the above is a brief overview based solely on the books in the database.

FAQ

这本书和电影《一条狗的使命》是什么关系？

本书是电影《一条狗的使命》的原著小说，原著英文名为 A Dog's Purpose，作者为美国作家W.布鲁斯·卡梅隆。电影于2017年在国内上映，小说中译本由湖南文艺出版社出版。

中文版最早的译名是什么？

这本小说2011年首次引进中文时译名为《在轮回中找你》，2017年配合电影上映，湖南文艺出版社推出新版并改用《一条狗的使命》，译本经过梳理修订。

没看过电影，直接读小说会有障碍吗？

不会。小说以狗的视角独立成篇，叙事线索清楚，不依赖电影剧情铺垫；先读小说反而更容易理解叙事者为什么执着追问“使命”。

这本书适合多大的孩子阅读？

原著曾入选美国中小学阅读课程相关书目，中文版题材温和，初中及以上学生阅读较为合适；小学高年级学生可在成人陪伴下阅读，书中涉及死亡与离别的情节需做些引导。

作者还写过其他同题材小说吗？

卡梅隆后续写有多部狗狗题材小说，其中《一条狗的使命：只想陪在你身边》（又译《一条狗的回家路》）有中文版，主角是一只名为贝拉的狗，与本作不是同一故事。

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About the author

W.布鲁斯·卡梅隆 Author

W. Bruce Cameron is the author of A Dog's Purpose: Just Want to Stay by Your Side, and public information about him is quite limited; only one of his works is currently included in our collection. Judging from this representative work, his writing focuses on the emotional bond between people and dogs, using a dog as the narrative perspective or central image to explore themes of companionship, loyalty, and waiting. The work is categorized as foreign literature, and its overall style leans toward warm-hearted storytelling, emphasizing everyday details and the accumulation of emotion rather than relying on complex plot structures. This kind of subject often reflects life's partings and reunions through interactions between animals and humans, prompting readers to reflect on the meaning of companionship. Although reliable information about the author's life, nationality, and creative career is still lacking, A Dog's Purpose: Just Want to Stay by Your Side has attracted some attention among Chinese readers and has become the main entry point through which he has entered the Chinese reading landscape.