Vigil

        《林肯在中陰》作者喬治．桑德斯精采新作《守夜》

       這並非吉爾．布萊恩第一次從靈界重返人間，她可以感受到自己正急速墜向地球，軀體也重新凝聚成形，甚至連最愛的黑色高跟鞋都重現了。她直落在一座華麗宅邸的環形車道上，住在這裡的是她即將引渡的新目標。

       自從吉爾死後，引渡靈魂便成了她的工作，她已經履行這項神聖的職責343次了。一般而言，她守護的對象都會在離世之際獲得安慰，然而這次的對象卻似乎很不一般。位高權重的石油大亨K. J. 布恩並不稀罕她的幫助，因為他對自己的一生非常滿意。他過了精彩豐富的人生，還為世界帶來了進步，難道不是嗎？

       《Vigil》帶領我們窺見一個複雜的男人在世上最後一個癲狂之夜，來找他算總帳的人橫跨了陰陽兩界：一群鳥類衝進了他的房間、一頭黑牛糟蹋了他的沙發、還有一個飽受乾旱所苦的村民現身在他的面前。兩位認識多年的石油界老夥伴，更是帶來了令人不寒而慄的死後生活預告。

       喬治．桑德斯以他慣有的智慧、幽默和想像力，點出現代最迫切的議題：企業貪婪的威脅、資本主義的代價、和發展帶來的環境破壞。《守夜》的故事不僅包含了生與死、善與惡、還有赦免這個難題。(文／博客來外文館)

        An electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO in the twilight hours of his life as he is ferried from this world into the next

        Not for the first time, Jill ＂Doll＂ Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.

        She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?

        Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distant, drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s postdeath future.

        With the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time--the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress--and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.

George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker Prize, and the story collections Pastoralia and Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and was included in Time’s list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.