今年諾貝爾文學獎得主亞歷塞維奇出生於白俄羅斯，或許由於長年擔任報社記者，她的作品主要採取敘事文學風格，以訪談的方式記錄重大事件下的小人物心聲。雖屬紀實文學，但在獲獎之後的訪談中，她坦言自己沒有完整記錄事實全貌的能力。原來，她想傳達的不是事件本身，而是在極端情境底下才能令人深刻體悟的生命道理。
You know, everything happens so fast and intensively in the modern world that neither one person nor the whole culture are able to conceive it. Every person, me too, can only try to grasp a small piece of reality, conjecture only…. I wish to tell them what I realised in this life. I am not a cool chronicler. My heart is always there. It is important when somebody says that he or she has read such horrible books and feels better, that a reader got tears and these were purifying tears.
你知道，現代世界所有事情都發生得又快又緊湊，不是個人或者文化群體能夠想像的。每個人，我也是，只能半猜測的，試著掌握現實的小碎片。⋯⋯我希望可以告訴讀者的，是我在人生中所體悟的道理。我不是一個冷靜的記錄者，我的心總是和人們同在，重要的是，當某人說他讀到了這本駭人聽聞的書能夠感到舒緩，能夠流下眼淚，而且那是一種淨化後的眼淚。
conceive /kənˋsiv/ (v.) 想像、設想
例句：We've never conceived the idea that the nuclear power plant might explode.
我們從未想過核電廠可能爆炸。
conjecture /kənˋdʒɛktʃɚ/ (v.) 猜測
例句：She conjectured that her colleague might get married at the end of the year.
她猜測同事年底時會結婚。
