Enlightenment

by Shelagh Stephenson

At three o'clock in the morning, this is what I think. I think somebody killed him. They killed him, God, I don't know how I'm uttering these words ... they killed him because he's white and Western and they hated him. And it wasn't personal. Which somehow makes it worse.

When Lia and Nick's son disappears when overseas, all they have is an email that he was thinking of going to Jakarta, leaving them with their own grief and uncertainty. And then a stranger appears, uncannily like their son, covered in scars and holding Adam's passport...

Enlightenment is a powerful study of parental grief and of hope amidst uncertainty.

Published to tie-in with the world premier at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in March 2005.

114 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 3, 2005

About the author

Shelagh Stephenson was born in Northumberland and read drama at Manchester University. She has written several original plays for BBC Radio. These include Darling Peidi, about the Thompson and Bywater murder case, which was broadcast in the Monday Play series in 1993; a Saturday Night Theatre, The Anatomical Venus, broadcast in the following year; and Five Kinds of Silence (1996), which won the Writer's Guild Award for Best Original Drama. Her first stage play, The Memory of Water, opened at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in July 1996, and her second, An Experiment With An Air Pump, joint winner of the 1997 Peggy Ramsay Award, opened at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in February 1998. Also Life is a Dream, and Through a Glass Darkly in 2004.

Reviews

[Elyas · Rating 5 out of 5]

این کتاب رو کسی بهم معرفی نکرده‌بود و تا قبل این که توی کتابفروشی به‌صورت تصادفی بخرمش اسمش رو هم نشنیده بودم. حالا که خوندمش دوست دارم معرفی‌اش کنم تا بیشتر خونده بشه.
داستان کتاب در مورد پسریه که گویا حین جهانگردی گم می‌شه و مدت زیادیه خبری ازش نیست. مادرش و ناپدری‌اش سعی می‌کنن با روش‌های مختلفِ کمک گرفتن از پلیس، دعانویس و ... پیداش کنند و ...
ترجمه‌اش هم که در درستیِ کار آقای قادری شکی نیست.
بخش مورد علاقه‌ام:
فردی که گم‌شده -اسم‌اش آدمه- یه دستگاهِ پرتابِ توپِ تنیس توی خونه‌ داشته. این دستگاه دوتا توپِ یکسان رو همزمان و روی سطحی یکسان پرتاب می‌کنه. در ابتدای حرکت، دو توپ همسان بالا و پایین می‌رن ولی همیشه آخرِ مسیر حرکت‌شون متفاوت می‌شه.
«آدم» این شکلی می‌گه که همیشه متغیرهای تاثیرگذاری هستند که به‌علتِ ناچیزی، محاسبه‌شون نمی‌کنیم. ولی همین ها باعث می‌شن نتیجه متفاوت بشه.

[Tafa · Rating 3 out of 5]

پسره میره گردشگری گم میشه، خانواده‌‍ش فکر میکنن مرده، اما یکی پیدا میشه که وسایل پسره همراهشه و پلیس فکر میکنه پسره‌ست. و انگار حافظه‌ش ر از دست داده. نمایشنامه‌ی بدی نیست.
https://taaghche.com/book/120114/%D8%...

[Laur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept, I think it would be more interesting to watch than it is to read, as the little hints and clues are all in the visuals. But cool to read nonetheless.