Gun Love

　　14歲的佩兒在拖車公園裡的汽車前座長大，她沒有出生證明，也沒有人知道她的存在。在佩兒出生後沒多久，她的母親就帶著她遠離家園。她們一直住在汽車裡（一台94年份的水星汽車），在社區的洗手間裡洗澡，吃的是不需要冰箱冷藏的食品。她們與週遭鄰居維持友好關係，但特別的是，她們這與眾不同生活是在佛羅里達州，某個持槍人聚集的地方。

　　在拖車公園裡生活的確很奇怪，但直到埃利--一個來自德州的危險持槍男人--到來，才真正顛覆了佩兒的生活。埃利時常造訪生活在後座的母親，很快地，佩兒的母親愛上了埃利，迫使佩兒不得不離開她這14年以來賴以維生的「家」。不僅如此，埃利還將槍當成禮物送給佩兒母親，這把槍被藏在駕駛座底下，彷彿預言了一個充滿黑暗的未來……。

　　《Gun Love》講述一個關於家庭、社區與暴力的故事，從青少年角度著眼，透露出美國對於槍枝的熱愛，以及槍所帶來的痛苦後果。

　　「克萊門特充滿影響力與令人難忘的小說，也是尖銳的社會評論，為讀者帶來諸多省思。」--《出版者週刊》
　　The searing, unforgettable story of a young girl’s resilience, beginning with an unusual childhood and then changed forever by shocking tragedy, by the award-winning author of Prayers for the Stolen

　　Pearl’s mother took her away from her family just weeks after she was born, and drove off to central Florida determined to begin a new life for herself and her daughter—in the parking lot next to a trailer park. Pearl grew up in the front seat of their ’94 Mercury, while her mother lived in the back. Despite their hardships, mother and daughter both adjusted to life, making friends with the residents of the trailers and creating a deep connection to each other. All around them, Florida is populated with gun owners—those hunting alligators for sport, those who want to protect their families, and those who create a sense of danger. When Pearl’s mother falls hard for Eli Redmond—a man with a passion for guns and a knack for finding trouble—her terrible fate is sealed, and Pearl is left on her own.

　　The story of a tough but optimistic young woman growing up in contemporary America in the midst of its love affair with firearms, Gun Love is an emotional journey written in gorgeously poetic prose, for readers of classic coming-of-age tales like Bastard Out of Carolina.

　　Review

　　An Irish Times Book of the Year
　　Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award

　　“Beguiling, and even crazily enchanting…[Clement] writes a poet’s prose, spare and simple, creating her world through patterns of repeated and varied metaphors and images that blossom inside the reader like radiant poppies….Prayers for the Stolen gives us words for what we haven’t had words for before, like something translated from a dream in a secret language. The novel is an ebullient yet deeply stirring paean to its female characters’ resiliency and capacity for loyalty, friendship, compassion, and love, but also to the power of fiction and poetry.”—Francisco Goldman, New York Times Book Review

　　“[A] beautiful, heartrending novel…Fiercely observed comparisons of human and inanimate life form a continuing motif throughout the story….[Clement] achieves the formidable feat of smooth, clear English that pulses with an energy and sensibility that is convincingly Latin American….So compelling…Prayers for the Stolen is a powerful read.”—Wall Street Journal

　　“The author builds a powerful narrative whose images re-create an alarming reality that not everyone has dared to address but that everyone has definitely heard. Let’s pray for spoons.”—El Paso Times