The Gathering

　　2007年曼布克獎/2007年度文學桂冠
　　2008年愛爾蘭年度圖書獎

　　我恨我的家人，這些我從沒想過要愛、卻一樣深愛著的人。

　　「哥哥的死在多年前就已經埋下根源，但始作俑者早已不在人世──至少我是這樣認為。」

　　梅格迪家族是個生養了十二名子女的大家庭，故事由不羈的大哥黎安投海自殺揭開序幕。薇羅妮卡是黎安最親近的妹妹，她來到倫敦，將哥哥的遺體帶回都柏林。尚存的九個子女為了給黎安守靈，重聚在都柏林老家。

　　酗酒並非黎安的死因，只能算是誘因，真正的根源要追溯到1968年冬天發生在外婆家的可怕經歷。當家人齊聚守靈，薇羅妮卡終於得面對糾結三代的愛、恨與性的家族秘密。全書以薇羅妮卡第一人稱意識流式的敘述，交錯當下與過往，呈現愛爾蘭天主教大家庭的貧窮、擁擠及忽視造成的影響。寫作手法絕不多愁善感，而是以冷酷的語言，烘托出幾近殘酷的痛苦，赤裸揭露隱藏在欲望背後的衝突與冒犯，最終透出愛的光芒，讀者也隨著薇羅妮卡一同接受這場從糾結到釋放的洗禮。

　　Anne Enright is a dazzling writer of international stature and one of Ireland’s most singular voices. Now she delivers The Gathering, a moving, evocative portrait of a large Irish family and a shot of fresh blood into the Irish literary tradition, combining the lyricism of the old with the shock of the new. The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan are gathering in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother, Liam, drowned in the sea. His sister, Veronica, collects the body and keeps the dead man company, guarding the secret she shares with him—something that happened in their grandmother’s house in the winter of 1968. As Enright traces the line of betrayal and redemption through three generations her distinctive intelligence twists the world a fraction and gives it back to us in a new and unforgettable light. The Gathering is a daring, witty, and insightful family epic, clarified through Anne Enright’s unblinking eye. It is a novel about love and disappointment, about how memories warp and secrets fester, and how fate is written in the body, not in the stars.

　　★本書中譯版《聚會》由書林出版有限公司出版。

作者簡介

安瑞特　Ann Enright

　　1962年10月11日出生於愛爾蘭都柏林，在都柏林聖三一大學取得英文及哲學學位，家人送她打字機作為21歲生日禮物，促使她踏上寫作一途。曾在都柏林RTE電視臺擔任製片及導演。安瑞特的創作主題圍繞在家庭關係、愛情和性，還有愛爾蘭沉重的歷史及時代精神。首次出版短篇小說集，即榮獲1991年愛爾蘭文學魯尼獎（Rooney Prize for Irish Literature）。1993年開始全職寫作，至今已出版九本作品。2007年以本書成為繼Iris Murdoch後第二位榮獲曼布克獎的愛爾蘭女作家，目前是英國皇家文學學會（Royal Society of Literature）成員。

　　Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published one collection of stories, The Portable Virgin, which won the Rooney Prize, and three novels, The Wig My Father Wore, What Are You Like? - shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and winner of the Encore Award - and The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch. Her first work of non-fiction, Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, was published in 2004. The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize 2007.