文學小說
更新日期:
2016-12-21
The Fall of Lisa Bellow
Susan Perabo
Simon & Schuster
March 2017
352pp
書籍編號:
01-2189
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● 內文簡介

★紐約時報暢銷書《最後的目擊者》(Reconstructing Amelia)作者Kimberly McCreight盛情推薦
★美國Simon & Schuster出版社2017春季重點書

女國中生在光天化日下遭到持槍綁架,同一家店裡,她的同學目睹了一切。被留下來的女孩,往後人生將發生何種變化?一場悲劇,會在倖存者家庭掀起如何難以預料的漣漪?

那原是一個稀鬆平常的下課午後,麥瑞迪絲結束了數學考試,到熟食店準備買瓶沙士小小犒賞自己,不料竟遇上持槍搶劫。店裡除了店主人,只有麥瑞迪絲和麗莎,那位全年級最受歡迎,也最狠毒,對麥瑞迪絲極盡欺負之能事的女生。

蒙面歹徒威脅店主開保險箱,命令二個女孩趴在地上。麥瑞迪絲與麗莎面對面趴著,時間分秒流逝,她一邊安慰啜泣的麗莎,一邊想像難逃一死,不知過了多久,歹徒要求麗莎站起來,擄走了她,只留下癱軟在地的麥瑞迪絲,與不省人事的店主。

二個面對持槍搶匪的女孩,一個被擄走,一個被放過;被留下的那個可說非常幸運,卻也開始了她的不幸。麗莎被綁後,麥瑞迪絲幾乎整天關在房間裡;當社區居民開始大規模投入守夜、搜索麗莎的行動,麥瑞迪絲的母親克萊兒卻陷入內心煎熬,她一方面慶幸女兒平安無事,一方面對自己沒能保護甚至安慰孩子感到深深無助。麥瑞迪絲人是回來了,原來的她也在快速消失。

麥瑞迪絲完全沉陷麗莎失蹤的事件,到了偏執的地步。如果她在歹徒離開後馬上報警,或站起來留意車型,而非持續癱軟在地終至不省人事,是否能扭轉悲劇?歹徒為什麼單單帶走麗莎,因為麗莎比較漂亮嗎?

《被留下來的女孩》(The Fall of Lisa Bellow)透過懸疑的架構,巧妙將目光移到看似幸運逃過一劫的倖存者家庭,由麥瑞迪絲與牙醫母親克萊兒的交替視角,教人屏息地講述一樁犯罪觸發的漣漪效應,與一個家庭面對接連不幸時如何嘗試理解與找到救贖。作者優美的散文直探人心最黑暗的漩渦,最荒唐也最真實的懦弱,是一個關於面對傷痛、成長與原諒的令人驚豔之作。

 

● 作者簡介

Susan Perabo,手推車文學獎得主,著有短篇小說集《Who I Was Supposed to Be》、《Why They Run the Way They Do》、小說《The Broken Places》。作品曾收錄於《Best American Short Stories》《Pushcart Prize Stories》《New Stories from the South》等選集,與多本雜誌期刊。她是賓州狄金生學院英語教授與駐校作家,亦任教Queens University短期藝術碩士學程。擁有阿肯色大學藝術碩士學位。

 

● 媒體報導

“Two eighth-graders witness an armed robbery in a sandwich shop. One is taken, the other left behind—making her a very lucky, very troubled girl. …Meredith's nonabduction befalls the Oliver family less than a year after another out-of-the-blue trauma—her brother, a high school baseball star, had his left eye and socket completely crushed by a foul ball. We track the family's attempt to cope with these misfortunes through the alternating perspectives of Meredith and her mother, Claire. Overwhelmed by her parents' solicitousness…Meredith slips further and further away, her concern with Lisa's disappearance becoming obsessional, which Perabo (Why They Run the Way They Do, 2016, etc.) conveys using a daring and suspenseful narrative strategy. Claire Oliver, who shares a dental practice with her good-natured, unfailingly kind husband, Mark, is as fine a fictional character as we have encountered in some time, dark, moody, passionate about her children, keenly self-aware, and very, very funny. …The texture of family life as it unravels, then begins to regenerate, is conveyed with unflinching clarity and redemptive good humor.”——Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Utterly captivating and achingly beautiful, The Fall of Lisa Bellow brilliantly explores the aftermath of a shocking abduction in an idyllic town, moving seamlessly between the rocky terrain of teenage grief and maternal guilt to show the ultimate redemptive power of love. It's a fantastic, thought-provoking novel." —— Kimberly McCreight, New York Times Bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia and The Outliers.

“Breathless as a thriller, this exhilarating novel shatters your heart then pieces it back together chapter by chapter until the last devastating sentence. In masterful and hypnotic prose, Perabo tells an unforgettable story of resilience as a family struggles to reconnect after their perfect world is torn apart by violence and loss. Psychologically insightful and emotionally engrossing, this is a story that will transform you from the inside out.” ——Kim van Alkemade, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan #8