￡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."

一名年仅18岁的作家凭其处女作获得了高达40万英镑的预付款，这是英国出版史上年轻作家创作的最昂贵的作品之一。

海伦·欧耶米是剑桥基督圣体学院一年级的学生，现在已被列为英国杰出作家。她与J·K·罗琳（《哈利·波特》的作者）和查娣·史密斯（《白牙》的作者）的会计师是同一个人。

布卢姆斯伯里出版社被欧耶米的小说《伊卡洛斯女孩》深深吸引了，于是决定出版她的两本小说。《伊卡洛斯女孩》的主人公是8岁的小神童杰瑟米，她在去尼日利亚探望亲戚时，邂逅了蒂莉蒂莉，一个只有她才能看见的女孩。

起初，她们相处的很融洽，后来发生的一些事情给她们的关系蒙上了阴影。因为杰瑟米发现蒂莉蒂莉竟然是幽灵，而且想依附在自己身上。

有着尼日利亚血统的欧耶米在接受采访时说，她几乎是一夜之间成名，连她自己也不敢相信这个事实。“我不得不在考试期间与出版社签约，那天我还在参加神学课A级考试，”她说。

欧耶米的父亲是一名教师，母亲正在接受培训将成为伦敦的一名地铁司机。她从7岁那年开始写作。

“我曾经改写过《小妇人》，让劳瑞如愿以偿地嫁给了乔，我觉得这样的结局更好。”

欧耶米从去年开始创作《伊卡洛斯女孩》，那时她还在圣母中学念六年级。她的经纪人罗宾·韦德把书稿推荐给布卢姆斯伯里出版社的主编亚历山大·普林格，他也是英国小说家堂娜·塔特的编辑，“从全书的第一页开始，一切都非常令人满意。”普林格说。

然而，欧耶米认为她不会成为一名全职作家。“我想现在很少有人可以胜任这个角色，我更愿意做一名文学经纪人。”

Advance：预付款
Bracket：n. 括在一起；vt. 归为同类
Icarus：伊卡洛斯。传说中的建筑师和雕刻家代达罗斯（Daedalus）之子, 他用蜡和羽毛造成翼翅逃出克里特（Crete）岛时, 因过分飞近太阳, 蜡翼受热后融化, 坠海而死, 古代多作为绘画题材。
bowl over：使大吃一惊；打倒；给…造成一个强烈的印象
snap up：抢购；争相
editor-in-chief：主编