About the book關於這本書

Refugee (2017) by Alan Gratz tells the stories of three children from three different times who are forced to flee their homes. Josef is a Jewish boy escaping Nazi Germany on a ship to Cuba in 1939. Isabel is a Cuban girl setting out for Florida on a homemade boat in 1994. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy whose family leaves war-torn Aleppo in 2015 for Europe. Their journeys are separated by decades and oceans, but they share fear, hope, loss, and courage.《Refugee》（2017，書名意為「難民」）是艾倫·葛拉茲的作品，講述三個生活在不同時代、被迫逃離家園的孩子。約瑟夫是 1939 年搭船逃離納粹德國、前往古巴的猶太男孩；伊莎貝爾是 1994 年搭自製小船前往佛羅里達的古巴女孩；馬哈茂德是 2015 年和家人離開戰火中的阿勒坡、前往歐洲的敘利亞男孩。他們的旅程相隔數十年、遠隔重洋，卻同樣充滿恐懼、希望、失去和勇氣。

Structure: the book has fifty-three short sections. Each is headed with the narrator's name, a place, and a year, and the narrators take turns in the same order: Josef, Isabel, Mahmoud. These notes group each set of three sections (one from each narrator) into one lesson, and the final two sections into one lesson, for eighteen lessons in four parts.結構：全書共五十三個短節。每一節開頭標示敘述者的名字、地點和年份，三位敘述者依照固定順序輪流：約瑟夫、伊莎貝爾、馬哈茂德。這份筆記把每一輪三節（每位敘述者各一節）合成一課，最後兩節合成一課，共十八課，分成四部分。

The novel deals with real history and includes Nazi persecution of Jews, concentration camps and the Holocaust, war and airstrikes in Syria, people drowning at sea, a shark attack, the deaths of family members and friends, a parent's mental breakdown and attempt to end his life, and refugees being robbed and imprisoned. These events are told honestly but without graphic detail.這本小說取材自真實歷史，內容包括納粹對猶太人的迫害、集中營與大屠殺、敘利亞的戰爭與空襲、有人在海上溺斃、鯊魚攻擊、家人和朋友的死亡、一位父親精神崩潰並試圖結束生命，以及難民遭到搶劫和關押。書中如實敘述這些事件，但沒有血腥的細節描寫。

Alan Gratz is an American writer born in 1972 in Knoxville, Tennessee, who lives in North Carolina. He is known for fast-paced historical novels for young readers, many about children caught in war. Refugee became one of his most widely read books. He has said he wrote it to help readers understand what refugees go through, and he donated part of his earnings from the book to help refugee children.艾倫·葛拉茲是美國作家，1972 年生於田納西州諾克斯維爾，現居北卡羅來納州。他以節奏明快、寫給青少年的歷史小說聞名，其中許多是關於捲入戰爭的孩子。《Refugee》成為他最廣為閱讀的作品之一。他說過，寫這本書是為了幫助讀者了解難民的遭遇，他也把這本書的部分收入捐出，幫助難民兒童。

Gratz has also written Prisoner B-3087, about a Jewish boy who survives several concentration camps; Projekt 1065, about a boy spying inside the Hitler Youth; Code of Honor; Grenade, set during the Battle of Okinawa; Allies, about D-Day; and Ground Zero, about the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan.葛拉茲還寫了《Prisoner B-3087》，講述一個在多座集中營中倖存的猶太男孩；《Projekt 1065》，講述一個在希特勒青年團裡當間諜的男孩；《Code of Honor》；以沖繩戰役為背景的《Grenade》；關於諾曼第登陸的《Allies》；以及關於九一一事件和阿富汗戰爭的《Ground Zero》。