1980 My literary era

The next day, Lin Weimin received a letter from the United States, written to him by Richard Yates.

In the past two years, the Chinese Literature Society has successively introduced several works by Richard Yates. Thanks to Lin Weimin's promotion, these works have achieved good sales in the country.

Although it is not a bestseller, it is not difficult to sell 20,000 to 30,000 copies a year. The book with the most sales is "Revolutionary Road". As Richard Yates's most famous work, this novel has a cumulative total of Sales have exceeded 150,000 copies.

Because of the continuous sales of his works, Richard Yates's reputation has gradually become known to the Chinese literary community and readers. They know that on the other side of the distant ocean, there is a great writer who defined the "Age of Anxiety" in the United States.

In the letter, Richard Yates and Lin Weimin talked about his current situation.

His tuberculosis became more serious and he was admitted to the hospital twice in the past six months. He had difficulty breathing, kept coughing and wheezing, and had to use an oxygen mask to breathe.

But even so, he did not quit smoking and drinking.

He has written about his lifelong loneliness and loss, coupled with the changes in his family, which have already made his heart full of holes. Only these two things can anesthetize his heart and allow him to continue writing.

"Lin, I think I will die soon. Recently I am sorting out all my creations in my life. It is a bit regretful to say that I have written novels for decades. Countless famous people in the literary world have praised me highly, but I not only sell my novels It’s dismal, even the awards are pitiful.

Whenever I think about this, I always feel intense pain. I have a request, I hope you can help me publish a collection containing all the works of my life. I will collect and organize the manuscripts of these works and mail them to you.

If it cannot be published, then consider these manuscripts as my last gift to you! "

After reading Richard Yates's letter, which was like his last words, Lin Weimin was a little moved, partly because of the deterioration of his current situation, and partly because of his trust in himself.

Of course, part of this trust is also due to Lin Weimin's efforts to introduce and promote his works over the past three years.

Compared with the cold reception he received in the United States, the recognition and welcome Richard Yates felt in China warmed his scarred heart.

Richard Yates's request is not difficult for Lin Weimin. Personally, the two have some friendship; publicly, the sales of his works are not bad, at least he has not lost money. He has published an anthology, and maybe the sales will be better. The Chinese Literature Society does not suffer either.

Immediately, Lin Weimin wrote back to Richard Yates, first concerned about his health, comforted him, and then agreed to publish the collection of essays, asking him to mail the manuscript as soon as possible.

A few days later, Lin Weimin received a call from Albert from Italy. He was still talking about the 12 shortlisted for the Strega Literary Award.

The Strega Literary Prize announced the top five finalists for the award in June, which eliminated seven of the twelve shortlisted works.

Lin Weimin's "Burning" was among the seven eliminated works, and "No Matter What, Life is Beautiful" was successfully promoted.

Twelve out of five, as is also said in the Strega Literary Award, these five shortlisted works have already won the Strega Youth Award. The jury for this award consists of 60 middle schools from Italy and overseas. Composed of 600 students.

Lin Weimin, who had already received this news from Bertolucci, was not surprised. He just thought of those gaudy talent shows in later generations, and they must be played by Italians!

Ten days have passed since the announcement of the twelve-to-five list, and Albert Mondadori finally remembered to call Lin Weimin.

When Lin Weimin asked him why he didn't notify him when he was shortlisted last time, Albert's answer was that he was too happy the day the shortlist came out, drank too much, and forgot about it.

Lin Weimin opened his mouth, but in the end he had nothing to say. He just kept in mind that it would be too unreliable to do anything with this guy.

The reason why Albert thought of calling Lin Weimin was because he wanted to remind Lin Weimin to apply for a passport and visa.

If it weren't for this, Albert would most likely not have remembered to contact Lin Weimin.

Albert was unreliable, but after all, he was a professional editor who had been in the Italian literary world for a long time. He specially analyzed the various competitors for this award to Lin Weimin.

Finally, he said: "Actually, it's a good thing that "Burning" was brushed off this time. Otherwise, when two of your works are shortlisted, the votes will be divided. Now there is only one work shortlisted for the final list, and "Burning" should have the votes A large part of it will be attributed to "No matter what, life is beautiful", which increases your hope of winning the award."

Two days later, the invitation letter issued by the Strega Literary Award Organizing Committee was delivered to Lin Weimin through the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was a special matter and the visa was processed quickly.

A few days later, in the first week of July, the results of the Strega Literary Prize were about to be announced, and Lin Weimin was about to leave for Italy.

The afternoon before, Tao Huimin went to Hongdu Clothing Company. This time she went to Italy to attend the award ceremony. Although she might not win a prize, she had to prepare her outfit. Previously, she took Lin Weimin to Hongdu Clothing Company to order a high-end suit. .

I took the suit back and tried it on. It fit and was very decent. It was no worse than the luxury ready-made clothes Lin Weimin bought abroad.

Early the next morning, Lin Weimin flew to Rome, Italy, accompanied by staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture.

The two ministries attach great importance to the Strega Literary Award. After all, it is a first-line literary award in the European literary world. In addition, when Lin Weimin won the Goncourt Literary Prize five years ago, the Chinese and French cultural circles were rapidly warming up. Therefore, the two This time, the ministry specially assigned two comrades to escort Lin Weimin to Italy.

It was already evening when the plane landed, and the bus from the Chinese Embassy in Italy came to pick Lin Weimin up. The embassy had already arranged the hotel where Lin Weimin would stay during his stay in Italy.

Albert, who had agreed to pick him up before departure, was nowhere to be seen. He didn't know what he was doing again. Lin Weimin would not be stupid enough to wait for him, so he went directly to the hotel.

After a night's rest, Lin Weimin contacted the Strega Literary Award Organizing Committee through the embassy to discuss matters related to attending the award ceremony.

After communicating with the organizing committee, Albert's call finally came.

"Lin, my friend, I'm so sorry. My car broke down and I didn't bother to pick you up. Just now the organizing committee called me and said you had arrived in Italy."

Lin Weimin didn't know how sincere Albert's apology was, and he didn't want to care. Anyway, he had lost confidence in this guy.

The awarding ceremony of the Strega Literary Award will be held tomorrow morning. The two briefly chatted. Albert had already received the award results in advance. Lin Weimin's "No matter what, life is beautiful" ranked fifth with 216 votes. First place in this work.

After receiving this news, Lin Weimin felt even more calm about tomorrow's award ceremony.

Then he called Bertolucci and informed him that he had arrived in Italy, and the two agreed to find time to get together after the award ceremony.

After spending one night in the hotel, Lin Weimin packed up early the next morning, had breakfast, got into the car waiting for the embassy, ​​followed by several staff, and officially set off.

The Strega Literary Prize is held in the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome. The cultural relics displayed here are the cultural heritage left by the Etruscans who laid the foundation for urban civilization in Apennine between the 8th and 6th centuries BC.

When Lin Weimin arrived at the venue, closed management had been implemented. With the invitation letter, Lin Weimin and several accompanying staff successfully entered the museum.

Today, the Villa Julia Museum is covered with posters for the Strega Literary Prize. These posters have one thing in common, they all contain "witch" elements.

"Strega" in Italian means witch, so the Strega Literary Award is also called the "Witch Award", and posters over the years are related to witches riding broomsticks.

The style of the award ceremony for the Strega Literary Award is completely different from that in China. A podium was set up in the museum and surrounded by a red warning tape.

The award ceremony only started for more than half an hour, and the rostrum was already crowded with people. Lin Weimin first found Albert, who was here today on behalf of Mondadori Publishing House.

Albert led Lin Weimin to several judges and greeted them, and the relationship seemed unusually familiar.

Not only the judges, but also people from other publishing houses seemed to have a good relationship with Albert.

The judges are older, and the editorial department is mostly composed of people in their forties and fifties. There are very few young people. Lin Weimin looks a bit awkward standing among them.

Albert said in Lin Weimin's ear: "Lin, do you know? If you win the award, you will break the record of the youngest person to win the Strega Literary Award."

Lin Weimin was slightly surprised. He was already thirty-two years old this year, and he was not considered young at all. How could he be named the youngest winner?

He asked Albert and found out that there were no younger nominees than him in the history of the Strega Literary Award, but unfortunately none of them won the award in the end.

The winning writers of the Strega Literary Prize are almost monopolized by the five major Italian publishing houses all year round. The judges and editors are all the same group of people. The only difference is the writers who win the prize every year. Among these writers, young Opportunities for people to rise to the top are few and far between.

The Strega Literary Award has a rule that after a writer wins the award, he is not allowed to win consecutive awards within three years. This avoids the situation where a writer wins the award consecutively.

In addition to the many judges of the Strega Literary Prize and editors from various publishing houses, guests attending the award ceremony today include previous winners and finalists of the Strega Literary Prize, many writers and critics from the European literary world, Media journalists and cultural officials of the Italian government.

More than 200 people gathered in the Villa Giulia Museum, surrounding the rostrum in a circle of red warning tape. Outside, there were staff from Italian TV 3 who were setting up cameras. Today's award ceremony will be hosted by TV 3 live.

Albert led Lin Weimin around the crowd like a social butterfly, with ease and ease, completely different from the unreliable one before.

Lin Weimin couldn't remember how many people he had greeted. Anyway, he didn't remember a single name.

"Hi Lin!"

Lin Weimin's shoulder was tapped. He turned around and saw that it was Roger Strauss.

"Roger, why are you here?" Lin Weimin hugged him in surprise.

"Of course I have to come and take a look at something as important as the Strauss Award. I heard that you are the favorite this year!" Roger Strauss joked.

The two had not seen each other for three years. They had just exchanged a few words, and the award ceremony was about to officially begin over there. Lin Weimin was invited to the podium.

The rostrum for the award ceremony was not high, less than 30 centimeters, and did not have the majesty of domestic conferences.

He was also on stage with the other four writers whose works were shortlisted at the same time. Four of the five were destined to accompany him. The camera lens was facing everyone. Everyone had a calm smile on their face, as if they had a chance to win. .