￡400,000 advance for student's first novel In an interview, the Nigerian-born author said that she was astonished at the speed with which she was snapped up. "I had to sign the contract between my exams. It was on the day of my theology A level," she said. Ms Oyeyemi, whose father is a teacher and whose mother is training to become a driver for London Underground, began writing at the age of seven. "I rewrote Little Women so that Laurie married Jo because I thought that was a better ending." She began writing The Icarus Girl last year when she was in the sixth form of Notre Dame School. Her agent, Robin Wade, showed the book to Alexandra Pringle, editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury, who is also Donna Tartt's editor. "The prose sings immediately right from the first page," Ms Pringle said. Ms Oyeyemi does not believe that she will become a full-time writer, however. "I don't think that many people can do that these days," she said. "I would quite like to be a literary agent." 一名年僅18歲的作家憑其處女作獲得了高達40萬英鎊的預付款，這是英國出版史上年輕作家創作的最昂貴的作品之一。 海倫·歐耶米是劍橋基督聖體學院一年級的學生，現在已被列爲英國傑出作家。她與J·K·羅琳（《哈利·波特》的作者）和查娣·史密斯（《白牙》的作者）的會計師是同一個人。 布盧姆斯伯裏出版社被歐耶米的小說《伊卡洛斯女孩》深深吸引了，於是決定出版她的兩本小說。《伊卡洛斯女孩》的主人公是8歲的小神童傑瑟米，她在去尼日利亞探望親戚時，邂逅了蒂莉蒂莉，一個只有她才能看見的女孩。 起初，她們相處的很融洽，後來發生的一些事情給她們的關係蒙上了陰影。因爲傑瑟米發現蒂莉蒂莉竟然是幽靈，而且想依附在自己身上。 有着尼日利亞血統的歐耶米在接受採訪時說，她幾乎是一夜之間成名，連她自己也不敢相信這個事實。“我不得不在考試期間與出版社簽約，那天我還在參加神學課A級考試，”她說。 歐耶米的父親是一名教師，母親正在接受培訓將成爲倫敦的一名地鐵司機。她從7歲那年開始寫作。 “我曾經改寫過《小婦人》，讓勞瑞如願以償地嫁給了喬，我覺得這樣的結局更好。” 歐耶米從去年開始創作《伊卡洛斯女孩》，那時她還在聖母中學念六年級。她的經紀人羅賓·韋德把書稿推薦給布盧姆斯伯裏出版社的主編亞歷山大·普林格，他也是英國小說家堂娜·塔特的編輯，“從全書的第一頁開始，一切都非常令人滿意。”普林格說。 然而，歐耶米認爲她不會成爲一名全職作家。“我想現在很少有人可以勝任這個角色，我更願意做一名文學經紀人。” Advance：預付款 Bracket：n. 括在一起；vt. 歸爲同類 Icarus：伊卡洛斯。傳說中的建築師和雕刻家代達羅斯（Daedalus）之子, 他用蠟和羽毛造成翼翅逃出克里特（Crete）島時, 因過分飛近太陽, 蠟翼受熱後融化, 墜海而死, 古代多作爲繪畫題材。 bowl over：使大吃一驚；打倒；給…造成一個強烈的印象 snap up：搶購；爭相 editor-in-chief：主編
