The Little Stranger

　　二戰後的一個夏天，鎮上的法拉第醫生在代班時，被請到偏遠的豪翠山莊出診，那裡自兩百年以前就是艾瑞斯家族的宅邸。這座英國喬治亞王朝時期建造的豪宅，過去十分輝煌氣派，如今卻是漸漸衰頹，不但磚瓦傾頹、庭院雜草叢生，馬廄裡掛的時鐘還永遠指向八點四十。

　　艾瑞斯家族現今僅存的三個人：艾瑞斯上校夫人、夫人的兒子及女兒，相依為命住在這棟凋蔽破敗的大宅邸裡，不但要掙扎著努力跟上外面瞬息萬變的社會腳步，同時也面臨著三人相處時的內心衝突。

　　然而，怪異的事突然一件件接踵發生，艾瑞斯這一家人，是否其實遇上了比「落伍的生活方式」更不祥的東西？跟他們糾纏不清的，會是另一股更邪惡的力量嗎？

　　請做好心理準備，這位每回都帶給我們驚喜的作家，這次帶來的將是一個讓人背脊發寒的鬼故事。

　　本書中譯本《小陌生人》由木馬文化出版。

　　From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past.

　　In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules.

　　Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds.

　　But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely.

　　Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today.

作者簡介

莎拉．華特絲　Sarah Waters

　　★英國當代最重要的作家之一！
　　★被譽為「二十一世紀狄更斯的傳人」！
　　★兩度同時入圍柑橘獎及曼布克獎！
　　★英國媒體讚為「現今在世最擅長說故事的人」！

　　1966年生於威爾斯，大學修讀英國文學，並擔任獨立書店店員與圖書館員。1994年獲得英國文學博士，並在英國空中大學任教。目前為專職作家。

　　她是當代最重要的英語小說創作者之一，曾經三度入圍曼布克獎。作品中屢見扣人心懸的情節，以優美的詞藻加以烘托，並有歷史的背景與趣味，是兼具閱讀趣味與文學價值的小說讀物。

　　莎拉．華特絲迄今已經出版過四部小說，包含《輕舔絲絨》、《華麗的邪惡》、《荊棘之城》及《守夜》，最新著作的《小陌生人》，評論家認為，是她迄今架構最完整、最具代表性的小說創作。

　 　除了小說之外，她有關性別、性向與歷史的學術論文，則散見《女性主義評論》（Feminist Review）、《歷史與性別期刊》（Journal of the History of Sexuality）、《文化科學》（Science as Culture）等學報。