★Simon & Schuster 2017年春季重點回憶錄！

《Traveling with Ghosts》是一部書寫哀慟、憶往與療癒，懾人心魄的回憶錄。倫敦海洋生物學家夏儂．傅勒（Shannon Leone Fowler）在未婚夫遭遇箱型水母攻擊喪生的悲劇後，伴著他的精神再度踏上旅途，寫下漫漫悲傷中逐步邁向復原的動人體悟。

2002年盛夏，二十八歲的夏儂與未婚夫尚恩．法羅（Sean Farrell）一同赴亞洲背包旅行，高大、捲髮、溫暖的尚恩是夏儂的一生摯愛，兩人沉浸在幸福的旅途中。他們計畫秋天回到尚恩的家鄉墨爾本，夏儂在那裡完成海洋生物學博士學位，二人共組家庭。

然而，峇里島的一場意外粉碎了所有期盼。當時在海邊淺水區，尚恩挽著夏儂，一隻箱型水母突然來襲，巴住尚恩的腿猛螫，不出幾分鐘，劇毒便奪走尚恩的生命，而夏儂只能眼睜睜看著，無能為力。更教人無法接受的是，印尼政府認定尚恩為「酒醉溺斃」。

哀痛逾恆的夏儂獨力將尚恩的遺體帶回澳洲，面對尚恩震驚失措的親人，意識到她再也不屬於這個家。當她向印尼政府抗議死因認定錯誤，當她在崩潰邊緣回到加州老家，她只能藉由書寫抒發錐心刺骨的悲傷。

夏儂與尚恩相識於巴塞隆納的青年旅館，旅行是他們生命共同的熱愛。此刻也唯有旅行能撫慰夏儂，唯有透過旅行才能紀念他們的感情，接受它的告終。她暫停博士學位，花了整個冬天旅經東歐各國， 這一次，獨自上路。

但是尚恩的精神無處不在，一路陪伴著她——在波蘭奧斯威辛集中營舊址，被戰火摧殘的以色列，被移交的波士尼亞，經濟貧困的羅馬尼亞，回到多年前二人初遇的巴塞隆納。夏儂沒有預料到，行經這些同樣被悲傷烙印的地區，促使她有能力漸漸面對自己的悲痛，開啟了癒合的漫長歷程。最終，她更要回到她熱愛也奪走她的摯愛的海洋。

《Travels with Ghosts》雖講述教人揪心不捨的故事，卻以透徹、不濫情的文字娓娓道來一名年輕女子歷經失落、哀悼，在漫漫悲傷中逐步邁向復原的動人體悟，令人不得不聯想到瓊恩狄狄安的經典《奇想之年》（Year of Magical Thinking）。

夏儂是筆會/福克納文學獎得主Karen joy Fowler（《We Are All Completely beside Ourselves》）之女。

 

Shannon Leone Fowler is a marine biologist, currently living in London. Since her doctorate on Australian sea lions, she has taught marine ecology in the Bahamas and Galapagos, led a university course on killer whales in the San Juan islands, spent a number of seasons as a Marine Mammal Biologist onboard ships in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and taught graduate students field techniques while studying Weddell seals on the Ross Ice Shelf. Shortly after completing her Ph.D, Shannon was awarded a National Science Foundation Mass Media fellowship to work as a science writer at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.

 

"Powerful and heartbreaking, Traveling with Ghosts, is beautifully written and emotionally compelling. It is Shannon Leone Fowler's journey of survival and healing after the tragic and unexpected death of her fiancé. Battling grief with grief, she travels alone through devastated Eastern European countries, only to find her life held together by the rawness of place and the unexpected kindness of strangers. A gorgeous book to be read and savored."
—Gail Tsukiyama, bestselling author of The Samurai’s Garden and A Hundred Flowers

“After witnessing the senseless death of her fiancé, Shannon Fowler sets out on an unforgettable journey of reckoning, paying tribute to her young man’s adventurous soul while trying to make sense of the rest of her life without him. Fowler’s voice is powerful and searching, and the book left me deeply moved, not only by her courage, but by that of all the citizens of the devastated landscapes to which she so beautifully bears witness.”
—Elizabeth McKenzie, bestselling author of The Portable Veblen

"In Traveling with Ghosts Shannon Leone Fowler has created a searing memoir that recounts the moment her life was shattered by the death of her fiancé, young Australian Sean Reilly, and the months afterward as she stumbles around the war torn and poverty stricken countries of Eastern Europe trying to find a nonexistent balm to ease her grief. Coping as best she can with the terrible knowledge that Sean was just one of a number of people who swam in the Thailand ocean having never been warned that the most venomous creature on earth was there, Shannon celebrates in Traveling with Ghosts the life she had with Sean, the love they shared, and the future they planned. Rich with descriptions of place, beautifully constructed with a chronology that allows the reader to know the Sean that she knew, portrayed with honesty and dignity, Traveling with Ghosts celebrates a life cut short, a love never given a chance to grow, and a process of recovery bravely illustrating that while life after tragedy goes on, the chilly fingers of grief touch us in a way that mark us forever."
—Elizabeth George, New York Times bestselling author of A Banquet of Consequences and A Great Deliverance

“Shannon Fowler’s remarkable memoir feels as if it’s as intricate and deep as memory itself. It’s a privilege to be in her company as she travels to harrowing cities the world over, and more harrowing, to the mysterious interior realm, the country of grief. The comforts she finds there are without sentiment and profoundly moving.”
—Jane Hamilton, New York Times bestselling author of A Map of the World and The Excellent Lombards

“A stunningly wise, thoughtful, and thought-provoking ‘survival map’ of a memoir…Drawing from journals of her travels before and after the sudden death of her fiancé, Shannon Leone Fowler shares insights into life, love, and grieving in prose that is raw and unsentimental, and yet spills over with love. Put it on the shelf somewhere between Eat, Pray, Love and The Year of Magical Thinking. Traveling withGhosts made me laugh out loud, and it broke my heart. In its unforgettable final pages, it did both at once, and, as only the very finest books do, its power over me grows rather than fades.”
—Meg Waite Clayton, bestselling author of The Wednesday Sisters