假期悦读好书推荐

    值此佳节来临之际，我们将精挑细选的假期阅读书目倾情献上，以飨读者。书单中包括两部绝佳的惊悚小说、一部权威的短篇小说集和两本引人入胜的自行车骑行指南。

警察、匪徒、间谍上演的精彩大戏

    据报道，本·阿弗莱克正筹备将丹尼斯·勒翰的小说《以夜为生》（Live By Night）搬上银幕。届时，他将自编自导并担任制片、亲自出镜。如若报道属实，阿弗莱克势将有望凭借此片再夺大奖。

    原著小说围绕乔·考夫林的人生浮沉展开，考夫林是波士顿警局一位赫赫有名的警官最小的儿子。他与父亲背道而驰，从小偷小摸的街头犯罪干起，逐渐掌握了炉火纯青的犯罪艺术，后来成长为当地黑帮老大的左膀右臂，投身于轰轰烈烈的犯罪大业中。就在事业风生水起之时，他被抓入查尔斯顿监狱，服刑期间吃了不少苦头。也正是在狱中，他结识了自己的新老板，一名黑手党头目。出狱后，他奉新老板之命坐镇坦帕（美国佛罗里达州西部城市——译注），开展一起走私行动。

    时值20世纪20年代中期，全美实行禁酒令，地下酒厂、酒吧遍地开花。每一座废弃工厂的地下室里都有酿酒厂，每一片街区都有地下酒吧。黑帮暴徒们提着火光四射的冲锋枪在大街上巡逻，每一处街角都有焦头烂额的警察在指挥混乱的交通。勒翰以黑色电影的笔触描绘了一段引人入胜的历史，淋漓尽致地刻画了多姿多彩的众生百态。酒类走私贩、雪茄烟制作工、风情女郎、福音传道者、三K党成员……一个个鲜活的人物跃然纸上。前一秒烂醉如泥、称兄道弟的执法者和黑帮成员下一秒就可能反目成仇。

    这是一部扣人心弦、如电影般精彩的小说，其类似于勒翰之前的两部著作——《神秘河》（Mystic River）和《禁闭岛》（Shutter Island）。这两部小说分别被克林特·伊斯特伍德和马丁·斯科塞斯翻拍成了卖座大片。虽然乔·考夫林并非正面人物，但他完全可以称得上是一个耀眼的明星，具备一切令人喜爱和信赖的特质。他两度坠入爱河，将坦帕的走私行动开展得有声有色，和纽约的福星卢西安诺（美国知名罪犯、黑帮大哥，被称为美国“现代有组织犯罪之父”——译注）达成了一笔交易，还在卡斯特罗统治前的古巴给孩子们建了一座棒球场。

    In the spirit of the season, here's a selection of literary stocking stuffers for you or the bookworm in your life. They include two terrific thrillers, a definitive short story collection, and a pair of engrossing books about biking.

Cops, hoods, and spies

    Ben Affleck, who knows a good book when he sees one, is reportedly set to write, direct, produce, and star in the film version of Dennis Lehane's novel Live By Night. If the reports are true, he's got himself another winner.

    The book follows a bouncing ball named Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent member of the Boston police department. Joe takes off in a different direction, first mastering the art of petty street crime, then moving on to serious big-time capers as the right-hand man of a local mob boss. His journey is interrupted by a stretch in the Charleston penitentiary, where he learns a few painful facts of life. It's also where he meets his next boss, a Mafia capo who sends him to Tampa to take charge of a fledgling bootlegging operation.

    It's the mid-1920s. Prohibition is the law of the land, and that means distilleries in the basement of every deserted factory building, speakeasies on every block, gangsters patrolling the streets with blazing tommy guns and damaged cops directing traffic at every corner. As Lehane guides us through a fascinating history lesson bathed in noir, we meet rumrunners and cigar-makers, a string of fascinating women, evangelists, Ku Klux Klansmen, twisted lawmen and gangsters who can be loyal friends one minute, cruel enemies the next.

    It's an exciting, cinematic story, similar in that sense to Lehane'sMystic River, which gave Clint Eastwood some wonderful movie material, and Shutter Island, which Martin Scorsese turned into a gem. Despite the fact that Joe Coughlin lives on the wrong side of the street, he is a full-fledged star who has what it takes to win our trust and affection. He falls in love not once but twice, gets the bootlegging operation in Tampa up and running, works out a deal with Lucky Luciano in New York, and winds up building a baseball field for kids in pre-Castro Cuba.