Over the past 15 years Yiyun Li， a Chinese-American author， has read 「War and Peace」 at least a dozen times. Her hardback copy of Leo Tolstoy's 1，200-page saga bristles with coloured notes， like some exotic lizard's spine. The novel is not just a masterclass in fiction， Ms Li believes， but a remedy for distress. At the most difficult times in her life， she says， she has turned to it again and again， reassured by its 「solidity」 in the face of uncertainty.
So large is Tolstoy's world， Ms Li reckoned， that there could be no better companion for people trapped in isolation. She conceived of a virtual book club to sustain readers through the lockdown. Participants around the globe would plough through this doorstopper together and share their thoughts on social media.
Other book clubs have sprung up to discuss great literature during the pandemic. Some are reading Boccaccio's 「Decameron」， a story cycle set amid the Black Death; others， 「The Plague」， an allegorical tale by Albert Camus. But Tolstoy's novel reflects the atmosphere of life in quarantine better， if more obliquely. Its alternating structure， toggling between battlefields and the salons of Russian high society， mirrors the disorienting split in readers' own attention—between their own personal， stilled states and the calamity unfolding outside. Those who have begun the book before might have skimmed the war sections; now they seize the foreground， the main and awful action which， like the news from Wuhan， Bergamo and New York， overshadows the drawing-room intrigues.
Parallels with today's crisis are inescapable. On the very first page， Anna Pavlovna， a St Petersburg hostess， comes down with 「la grippe」—a flu—but holds her soirée nonetheless. Amid talk of Napoleon and war， she exclaims: 「Can one be calm in times like these if one has any feeling？」 Pauline Holdsworth， a reader in Toronto， shared the quote on Twitter， noting drily that it cut 「a bit close to the bone」.
The rhythm of the readathon， too， is analogous to the woozy movement of epidemic time. At a prescribed 30 minutes a day （some 12 to 15 pages）， readers move at a peculiar， slowed pace through battles and duels， deaths and marriage proposals and balls. If， as Ms Li claims， the book 「contains everything about life」， it also mimics the temporal experience of real lives. She has planned the readings to last for three months. And though the endpoint of the fictional action may be distant， it is still somehow plausible， like the eventual lifting of the lockdown.
Most strikingly， readers have instantly recognised themselves in the seesawing emotions that course through all Tolstoy's characters. None is ever really stable: Prince Andrei Bolkonsky swings abruptly between arrogance and euphoria; Pierre Bezukhov is forever thinking one thing and saying another; young Nikolai Rostov， enamoured of the tsar， is eager to die， then bolts away like a terrified hare.
「The amplified extremities of emotion during extreme times，」 tweeted Kristin Boldon， a reader in Minneapolis. 「I can relate.」 Tolstoy's genius is to capture these confused internal battles， which are never more evident than amid the cabin fever of quarantine—the oscillating closeness and exasperation with loved ones， claustrophobia jostling with odd hints of liberation.
As great art can， the novel is helping its readers adjust to their own uncertain reality. As George Saunders， another American novelist， puts it， Tolstoy observes humankind 「the way God sees us」， with empathy and forgiveness， implicitly encouraging readers to view themselves with the same generosity. The book club itself embodies the common humanity that the coronavirus has pointed up: a paradoxically rich connection with strangers who are widely dispersed yet linked by their predicaments and imaginations.
Whether listening to an audiobook while walking or curling up at the end of an exhausting homeschooling day， thousands of isolated souls are on the same page. It is not too late to start: there are still hundreds of pages to go.
15年來，美籍華裔作家李翊雲讀了不下12遍《戰爭與和平》。她手裡這部列夫·託爾斯泰的鴻篇巨著是一本1200頁的精裝書，裡面密密麻麻地標註著不同顏色的筆記，仿佛某種奇異蜥蜴的脊背。李翊雲覺得，這部小說不僅是由大師授課的文學創作講習班，還是治療憂傷苦痛的良藥。她說，在人生中那些最艱難的時期，她曾一次又一次地埋首這部著作，用書中傳遞的「堅強」安撫自己對未知的焦慮。
託爾斯泰筆下的世界恢弘開闊，李翊雲認為，與外界隔絕時用這部作品來陪伴自己大概再好不過了。她萌生一個念頭，組織一家虛擬讀書俱樂部，幫助讀者度過封城時期。世界各地的參與者將一起來啃這部大部頭，並在社交媒體上交流感想。
這種用討論文學名著打發疫期生活的讀書俱樂部冒出了許多。有的閱讀薄伽丘以黑死病為背景創作的故事集《十日談》；有的閱讀阿爾貝·加繆的寓言故事《鼠疫》。但託爾斯泰的小說更能反映隔離時期的生活氛圍，雖然這種反映比較間接。小說採用交替結構，在戰場與俄國上流社會沙龍之間來回切換場景，這正是讀者自身心神渙散割裂的寫照，他們一面關注平靜下來的個人生活，一面關注愈演愈烈的外界災禍。有些人以前就讀過這部書，對其中描寫戰爭的章節或許一掠而過；這回它們成了重頭戲，那些可怕的大戰就像武漢、貝加莫和紐約傳出的消息那樣，蓋過了上流社會客廳裡陰私勾當的風頭。
書中許多情節與當前危機相似，讓人難以忽視。翻開書中第一頁，聖彼得堡某場聚會的女主人安娜·帕夫洛夫娜就染上「流行性感冒」，但晚會照辦不誤。議論起拿破崙和戰爭，她感嘆道：「這年頭，但凡有血有肉，誰能做到處變不驚？」多倫多的讀者保利娜·霍爾茲沃思把這句話分享到推特上，冷冷地點評說：「有些戳心了。」
再者，這是一場馬拉松式的讀書活動，堪比曠日持久的疫情，讓人頭暈腦脹。以每天30分鐘（即大約每天12頁到15頁）的推薦閱讀量來算，讀者是用一種特殊的、慢吞吞的速度閱讀，一會兒是戰場與決鬥，一會兒是死亡與求婚，一會兒又是舞會。如果照李翊雲所說，這部著作「包羅生活萬象」，那麼它連現實生活裡時間的流逝感也一併營造了出來。李翊雲給這次閱讀活動定了3個月的期限。即便讀完的那一天遙遙無期，總歸是有影的事情，正如封城措施終有解除的那一天。
最叫人震驚的地方是，讀者看到託爾斯泰筆下人物無一不是情緒多變，立即從中看到了自己。沒有一個角色從頭到尾一成不變：安德烈·博爾孔斯基公爵忽而傲慢自負，忽而心花怒放；皮埃爾·別祖霍夫老是腦子裡想著一回事，嘴上說著另一回事；年輕的尼古拉·羅斯託夫為沙皇的魅力所傾倒，渴望為沙皇效死，結果卻像嚇壞了的野兔那樣掉頭狂奔。
明尼阿波利斯的讀者克麗斯廷·博爾登在推特上說：「這種情緒在極端時期更加偏激的情形，我心有戚戚。」託爾斯泰的天才之處在於捕捉到這些說不清道不明的內心衝突。居家隔離煩躁不安時，這種內心衝突再明顯不過了——與親人們一時親密無間，一時又憤然反目；剛剛因為禁錮在家透不過氣來，忽然又發覺解禁的苗頭，來回折騰。
偉大的藝術作品能夠幫助讀者適應無常，這部小說也在發揮這樣的作用。用美國另一位小說家喬治·桑德斯的話來說，託爾斯泰觀察人類，「就像上帝審視我們一樣」，心懷同情與寬恕，委婉地鼓勵讀者用同樣寬宏的眼光打量自己。這個讀書俱樂部本身就體現了此次疫情凸顯的共同人性，那就是：天各一方卻由困境和想像連接起來的陌生人反而彼此心意相通。
千千萬萬禁錮了的靈魂，或者一邊散步一邊聽有聲書，或者上完一整天令人疲憊的居家課程後愜意地窩起來讀書，終歸在同一部書中徘徊。現在開始讀也不晚：還剩好幾百頁呢。（於曉華譯自英國《經濟學人》周刊4月25日文章）