✶普立茲小說獎得獎作家

✶2022年全新作品

【生活雖被世界的殘酷籠罩，但所愛之人將照亮我們的內心】

Mercy Garrett 內心一直想成為畫家，小孩逐漸長大後，她便開始朝自己的夢想邁進。但這也意味著她將慢慢抽離自己的家庭，包含她的老公 Robin、正值青春期的兩個女兒，沉穩的 Alice 和讓男孩為之瘋狂的 Lily，以及已經打算逃離這個家庭的小兒子 David。

Garrett一家的生活充滿著混亂，這一切都起因於1959年夏天的湖邊小屋之旅。這是他們唯一一次的家庭旅遊。而在這趟旅行間發生的事所造成的影響長達數十年，甚至牽連下一代......

這本小說雖然讓人感到心痛，但也讓人不禁發笑。Anne Tyler 以家人之間的溫情讓我們清楚看見了日常生活的殘酷與其中令人感動的時刻，更引人反思個人與家庭間的關係。

►作者簡介

Anne Tyler 安妮‧泰勒是美國當代受到矚目的作者之一，至今已出版逾二十部作品。她曾以 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant《鄉愁小館的晚餐》(1982)、The Accidental Tourist 《意外的旅客》(1985)兩次入圍普立茲小說獎決選。

安妮‧泰勒的個性低調，甚少公開露面，1988年當她的小說 Breathing Lessons《生命課程》榮獲普立茲獎，她以正在寫作為由婉拒採訪。近期作品 The Spool of Blue Thread《糾纏的藍線》則同時入圍2015年英國女性小說獎與曼布克文學獎決選。2017年更加入挑戰莎士比亞系列，與其他享譽盛名的當代作家將莎翁的經典劇作改寫成現代小說，以馴悍記為靈感創作出版 Vinegar Girl《醋女孩》。

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning author—a funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family’s foibles, from a boyfriend with a red Chevy in the 1950s up to a longed-for reunion with a grandchild in our pandemic present.

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.

Full of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close—yet how unknowable—every family is to itself.

ISBN:9781784744632