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★《The Darkland Tales》蘇格蘭歷史神話與傳說系列書

A multi-layered story of madness and murder in the MacPhee family, leavened by moments of black humour and absurdity.

On 9 July 1857, Angus MacPhee, a labourer from Liniclate on the island of Benbecula, murdered his father, mother and aunt. At trial in Inverness he was found to be criminally insane and confined in the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison.

Some years later, Angus’s older brother Malcolm recounts the events leading up to the murders while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity. Malcolm is living in isolation, ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode in his past.

 

Graeme Macrae Burnet is a Scottish writer. His first novel, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau, earned him the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award in 2013, and his second novel, His Bloody Project, was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, and Case Study was longlisted in 2022.

 

「An elegant, eerie volume... Although ostensibly a fictionalisation of a real-life triple murder on the titular island, Benbecula is really a book about how precarious the idea of the self is.」－Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

「Burnet’s vivid portrayal of a troubled household by a man attempting to explain the inexplicable is dark, intense and utterly compelling.」－Laura Wilson, The Guardian

「Some crime writers are successful at creating fully-formed living, breathing characters; others are more adept at playing games with the reader: to an almost unique degree, Macrae Burnet excels at both.」－Jake Kerridge, The Telegraph