OPEN A BOOK,OPEN THE WORLD
// 2021年普立茲小說獎得獎作品 //
// 融合校園元素和村上春樹式的超現實冒險 //
// 無法拯救女兒的父親，該如何拯救自己？ //
Zach Wells是一位地質、古生物學家，擅長一個非常狹窄的領域——大峽谷科羅拉多河上方 44 米處的一個洞穴的地質歷史。他生活十分儉樸，休閒娛樂不過是和女兒下棋，在妻子做瑜伽時互相說說雙關語笑話，以及在網路上買舊衣服。
然而在一場沙漠實地考察後，回到家中的Wells發現他的世界正在崩潰。
女兒患上致命性的退化惡疾，視力、記憶力都逐漸失去控制，而且面對這些痛苦，Wells完全無能為力。巨大的痛苦和絕望拉扯著Wells陷入泥沼，他知道自己必須做點什麼卻茫然無措。
就在這時，他從網購的舊夾克口袋裡發現了一張求救紙條，隨即將他拋入秘密前往新墨西哥州的不可能救援任務中……
在Telephone中，我們看到失去和悲傷將驅使自己走得多遠，為了拯救而發揮的力量，往往強大得震撼人心。
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Zach Wells is a perpetually dissatisfied geologist-slash-paleobiologist. Expert in a very narrow area―the geological history of a cave forty-four meters above the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon―he is a laconic man who plays chess with his daughter, trades puns with his wife while she does yoga, and dodges committee work at the college where he teaches.
After a field trip to the desert yields nothing more than a colleague with a tenure problem and a student with an unwelcome crush on him, Wells returns home to find his world crumbling. His daughter has lost her edge at chess, she has developed mysterious eye problems, and her memory has lost its grasp. Powerless in the face of his daughter’s slow deterioration, he finds a mysterious note asking for help tucked into the pocket of a jacket he’s ordered off eBay. Desperate for someone to save, he sets off to New Mexico in secret on a quixotic rescue mission.
A deeply affecting story about the lengths to which loss and grief will drive us, Telephone is a Percival Everett novel we should have seen coming all along, one that will shake you to the core as it asks questions about the power of narrative to save
