美国国家公共电台 NPR A Chance Meeting Changes Lives In Sophie Kinsella's Latest
时间：2019-03-17 作者：英语课 分类：2019年NPR美国国家公共电台2月
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
The new book "I Owe You One" centers around a family shop in London and a young woman trying to make her way and find love while dealing 1 with her self-centered siblings 2. It's written by the author known as Sophie Kinsella. She's sold over 40 million copies of her books. They've been translated into more than 40 languages. And you may have heard of some. I'm thinking "Confessions 3 Of A Shopaholic." Her real name is Madeleine Wickham. And she joins us now. Welcome to WEEKEND EDITION.
MADELEINE WICKHAM: Hello. So nice to be here.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So the main character in this book is 27-year-old Fixie Farr, which is a great name.
WICKHAM: Oh, thank you.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Tell us about her.
WICKHAM: Well, I mean, her name explains it all. It's her nickname, in fact. And it comes about because she is a girl who has to fix everything. She's the girl who comes into your house and sees that your painting is crooked 4 and has to straighten it. And, as you say, she is slightly downtrodden in her family situation. And she's a girl who needs to find her voice. So she doesn't assert herself enough. She doesn't stand up for herself. She doesn't fix her own life. And what happens in the book is that she has a chance encounter with a stranger in a coffee shop. So she does a favor for him. His laptop is nearly - well, I won't say exactly what happens. But anyway, she saves his laptop.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I was about to say, enter the hero.
WICKHAM: Yeah - from some sort of peril 5. And so two strangers, who otherwise would have just gone their separate ways, become linked because our hero is really grateful to her for rushing in and saving the day as she always does. And she doesn't want anything in return. But he says no, I always pay my debts. I owe you one. So he gives her a coffee sleeve on which she has written IOU on and fixed 6 his business card.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Hence the title of the book.
WICKHAM: And she thinks to herself, yeah, I owe you one. She thinks, like, I'm never going to go and claim a favor from a stranger. You know, nobody does this. But then things take a turn. And she does - except it's on behalf of somebody else. She reconnects with him. And through these trading favors with this handsome stranger, she learns to look at her own life again. He kind of helps her to find her voice. And so it's a love story. But it's also a girl finding empowerment.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I have to say, while I was reading the book, I was shouting to myself, stand up for yourself.
WICKHAM: (Laughter).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Come on.
WICKHAM: Yeah. Well, she starts off - I mean, she - what's interesting about her is that in some of her life, she is on top of it. She runs a staff at her family store. And she's assertive 7. And she has great ideas. And then she gets back into her family situation and she goes to pieces because she is slightly awestruck by her older siblings. And they are...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Her handsome...
WICKHAM: ...Totally self-centered.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...Brother...
WICKHAM: She's...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...Beautiful...
WICKHAM: Yeah. And her...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...Sister.
WICKHAM: ...Beautiful sister. They've become kind of stuck in family roles. And it was a satisfying storyline to write.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. You continue to write about 20-somethings and their travails 8 even though you are a mother with five children now...
WICKHAM: I am.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...And have moved on from that particular era. What is it about that time of life?
WICKHAM: Well, I just think there's something exciting about the time of life where you're on the lookout 9 for opportunities in all directions. You're looking at your career. You're looking at finding someone to love. Everything is ahead of you. And for me, the - kind of the wide, open horizon is so exciting. There is something exhilarating about meeting a stranger in a coffee shop and thinking, where's this going to go?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: What inspired this?
WICKHAM: I wanted to tell the story of a young woman who finds her voice because I think there's something incredibly empowering about that. And I related to that. I used to struggle sometimes in standing 10 up for myself or having my opinion voiced when I was, you know, younger and at university. I would sometimes be too perfectionist about thinking what I said. So that was my kind of character. And then I loved the idea of two strangers meeting. I just - there's something magical about the feeling that you're in a big city. And you go to a coffee shop. And there's a guy opposite you. And in one version, you just walk away and never see him again. But in this version, you become connected. And I have to say it somewhat came out of real life...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Oh.
WICKHAM: ...Because - yeah. I had had the idea for a long time. I wanted two strangers linked by a series of favors. I thought this would be a really interesting dynamic - backwards 11 and forwards. You know, I owe you one. No, I owe you one. But I didn't know how they met. And I was sitting in a coffee shop. I was literally 12 with my notebook and my pen, thinking, you know, how can they meet? How can they meet?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).
WICKHAM: And there was this handsome - I have to say - handsome American guy sitting opposite me.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well.
WICKHAM: And I think that's very relevant that he was handsome and American. And he looked up. And he said, I'm going to try an American accent now, so you can laugh at me. He said, oh, excuse me ma'am. Could you look after my laptop while I step outside? Off he went. And I just sort of stared into space thinking, I have it. This is how they meet. He asks her to mind his laptop. And she says of course. And then in my version - in real life - he came back, and we never spoke 13 again. And that was the end of it. And in the book, of course, that's not very exciting so...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Handsome American in a coffee shop. This - we need to find you now.
WICKHAM: I know.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).
WICKHAM: I owe him one. I really, really do.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You owe him one.
WICKHAM: (Laughter).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Your book has him as a central character.
WICKHAM: Yeah. Well, he was a wonderful character to write because he was so - he had such integrity. He's so honest. He calls Fixie out on stuff. And so it's very much a dual 14 partnership 15, very equal. They help each other in different ways. And what starts as just sort of a jokey trading of IOUs turns into something really meaningful. And the IOUs themselves turn into, you know, from almost a joke some, you know, life-changing, life-saving - some of these favors. So they become very entwined with each other. And there's a lot in the book about what do we owe people that we love, which I had to kind of really think about.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Madeleine Wickham, aka Sophie Kinsella. And her new book is "I Owe You One." Thank you so much.
WICKHAM: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF PANDREZZ, L'INDECIS, J'SAN AND EPEKTASE'S "ORION")
- This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
- His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。
- A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分
- It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
- You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。
- The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
- The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。
- Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
- Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。
- She always speaks an assertive tone.她总是以果断的语气说话。
- China appears to have become more assertive in the waters off its coastline over recent years.在近些年，中国显示出对远方海洋的自信。
- In the and travails of businesses you'll always need hometown help. 就算你的业务扩大到其他城市，也不要忘了你的发源地。 来自互联网
- Tata Motor's travails with Land Rover and Jaguar spring to mind as recent less-than-favorable examples. 印度塔塔汽车公司对陆虎和捷豹品牌的辛苦收购就是最近一个不如人意的例子。 来自互联网
- You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
- It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。
- After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
- They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
- He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
- All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。
- He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
- Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。
- They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
- The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
- The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
- He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。
- The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
- Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。