Boy

Name: Boy
ISBN: 9787533959371

马库斯·马尔特 / 黄雅琴Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House · ChinaApr 2021

4.2

Word count: 226K words
Chapters: 7
ISBN: 9787533959371

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Summary

Boy is a novel by French author Marcus Malte that won the 2016 Prix Femina. The boy has no name and grows up in the forests of southern France. After his mother's death, he sets out on a journey driven by instinct. He meets many people: Joseph, disheartened after losing the woman he loved; Brabetz, an itinerant performer; a eloquent one-armed swordsman; and Emma, the boy's lover who is like a sister and a mother to him. Along the way, the boy begins to grasp dimly what life is made of: a little joy, a few setbacks; some reunions, many partings. As World War I breaks out, the boy witnesses humanity's extreme madness, massacre, and what we call civilization. This is a journey of a young soul; in his innocence, the boy lives through the great and small events that shape history and begins to awaken...

Editor's review

Boy is a work by French author Marcus Malte that won the 2016 Prix Femina. It is a wandering epic spanning a century, chronicling the growth and search of a nameless boy. Set in late nineteenth-century southern France, the novel's protagonist, "the boy," has no name or surname. Before language comes to him, he connects with the world through his senses—touch, smell, light form his first system of knowledge. When language arrives, he begins a long and winding journey, from countryside to city, from Europe to the Americas, living through the gunfire and trauma of two world wars and witnessing the rise and alienation of modern civilization. Malte's prose is poetic and spare. He does not make the boy a conventional hero but a silent witness and survivor. Through the boy's fragmented life experiences, the novel explores eternal themes: language, memory, violence, love, and loss. Amid the tide of history, the boy's namelessness becomes a profound metaphor: he is both a specific individual and a microcosm of the human condition. The work is intricately structured, leaping across time and space yet clear in its thread, with a very high narrative density. It does not offer definitive answers like a traditional coming-of-age novel; instead, it invites readers to trek alongside the boy through uncertainty and to think at the points of rupture. Reading Boy demands patience, but the literary experience and intellectual resonance it brings are lasting and rich. It is not merely one person's story but a mirror reflecting the collective fate of twentieth-century humanity.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who love literary, stylistically distinctive coming-of-age epics
Readers interested in literary expressions of twentieth-century European history and the human condition
Readers who appreciate a narrative style combining poetic language with philosophical reflection
Readers willing to immerse themselves in a complex narrative structure and engage in deep reading and reflection

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a tight plot and clear storyline, seeking a light reading experience
Readers uncomfortable with jump-cut narration and fragmented time-space structures

Reading tips

Read immersively, following the boy's senses and inner rhythm; do not rush to sort out a clear timeline
Pay attention to recurring images in the novel, such as language, silence, and bodily memory; they are keys to understanding the themes
After reading, consider the meaning of namelessness and the individual's place and mode of existence within grand history

About the publisher

Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House is a Chinese publisher specializing in literary publishing. Judging from the 808 titles in the database, its publishing areas cover world classics, foreign literature, social novels, folk literature and classic works, as well as modern and contemporary literature and prose. Representative titles include foreign literary translations such as Anna Karenina, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, In Praise of Shadows and The Complete Tragedies and Comedies of Shakespeare, alongside classic works by Lao She and Lu Xun such as Camel Xiangzi, Teahouse and Wandering. Its authors and translators include Leo Tolstoy, Cao Ying, Lao She, Yukio Mishima, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Zhu Shenghao. The press emphasizes the translation and introduction of classic texts and the compilation of native literary works, giving equal weight to Chinese and foreign literature. Owing to limited public information, its specific series and editorial policies are not elaborated here.

版权信息
1908
1909—1910
1910—1914
1914—1915
1916—1938
鸣谢

FAQ

What is the narrative style of this book?

Boy employs poetic, spare, and philosophically rich language. The narrative is not linear but leaps between different time-space fragments, advancing through the boy's sensory experience and stream of consciousness, more like a literary symphony composed of impressions, memories, and epiphanies.

Why does the protagonist "the boy" have no name?

Namelessness is a core metaphor carefully designed by the author. It symbolizes a pure state of existence not defined by social labels, and it also lets the boy transcend a specific individual to become a vessel of universal human experience, better prompting readers to reflect on identity, memory, and individual fate amid the tide of history.

How does this book differ from a traditional coming-of-age novel?

The traditional Bildungsroman usually depicts a clear trajectory of the protagonist maturing from naivety and integrating into society. Boy subverts this model: the protagonist's "growth" does not point to social success or integration but is a lifelong, continuous questioning and wandering through the nature of the world, language, violence, and death, with an open and contemplative ending.

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About the author

马库斯·马尔特 Author

Marcus Malte is a foreign author about whom publicly available information is currently quite limited; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and full biography have not been clearly recorded in Chinese publishing materials. According to the available sources, only one of his works has been translated into Chinese, the novel Boy. Classified as foreign literature, the book, judging by its title and common categorization, likely centers on youth or childhood experience, focusing on its characters and carrying the coming-of-age themes common to literary narrative works. Because only a small number of translations exist, Malte is not yet well known among Chinese readers, and commentary and research on his work remain scarce, making it difficult to form a full assessment of his overall writing style. For readers wishing to learn about this author, the most direct route is still the translated edition of Boy, through which they can sense his narrative approach and concerns from the text itself.

黄雅琴 Author

Public information about Huang Yaqin is limited, and her nationality, dates of birth and death, and personal background cannot presently be confirmed. Judging from the six works held in the database, her translation and writing span several fields of foreign literature and genre fiction. Representative works include Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the four-volume Collected Plays of W. Somerset Maugham, and the two volumes and combined edition of Raymond Chandler's collected short stories, along with a work titled Boy. These works range across classic science fiction, Anglo-American drama, and mystery and detective fiction, while the common categories also cover otherworld fantasy, classic works, mystery and detective fiction, and foreign literature. It may therefore be inferred that her textual work is mainly devoted to introducing foreign literary works, covering different genres and readership levels, and that she has accumulated certain achievements in retranslating classics and translating genre fiction.