The Beginner's Goodbye

我從來就沒練習過，面對摯愛死去的悲傷。
我該如何，與回憶說再見？
 

＊普立茲獎得主安．泰勒溫柔書寫人生
＊紐約時報暢銷書《意外的旅客》、《鄉愁小館的晚餐》作者
＊美國最擅長書寫家庭與愛、傷痛與遺忘、日常生活與細膩情感的作家
 
艾倫因年幼時的一場病，右腳變得不良於行，右臂癱軟無力。
自責的母親總是大驚小怪，姊姊則對他過度保護，這樣的生活讓他喘不過氣。
 
桃樂絲，直率又獨立，她如同一股新鮮的空氣，
讓艾倫生平第一次感受到真正的自由。

他們相戀、結婚，開始一段平凡的婚姻生活。直到那場意外發生，
伴隨著令人悲傷欲絕的遺憾……失去摯愛，我們要如何才能與回憶道別？

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Tyler gives us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel about loss and recovery, pierced throughout with her humor, wisdom, and always penetrating look at human foibles.

Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron grew up fending off a sister who constantly wanted to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, an outspoken, independent young woman, she's like a breath of fresh air. He marries her without hesitation, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. Aaron works at his family's vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy's unexpected appearances from the dead-in their house, on the roadway, in the market-help him to live in the moment and to find some peace. Gradually, Aaron discovers that maybe for this beginner there is indeed a way to say goodbye.

"Like a modern Jane Austen, Tyler creates small worlds [depicting] the intimate bonds of friendship and family."-USA Today

"An absolute charmer of a novel…With sparkling prose…[Anne] Tyler gets at the beating heart of what it means to lose someone, to say goodbye."-The Boston Globe

"Classic Tyler…The wonder of Anne Tyler is how consistently clear-eyed and truthful she remains about the nature of families and especially marriage."-Los Angeles Times

"Beautifully intricate…By the exquisitely romantic emotional climax [an] ordinary life has bloomed into an opera."-Entertainment Weekly

Don't miss the conversation between Anne Tyler and Robb Forman Dew at the back of the book.

安．泰勒

美國家喻戶曉的小說家，1988年獲普立茲獎。

1941年生於美國明尼蘇達州第一大城明尼亞波利市。在北卡羅萊納州首府羅利市長大。由於父母親特殊的教養觀念，她直到11歲才開始上學。19歲時以優異的成績畢業於杜克大學，並於哥倫比亞大學攻讀俄羅斯研究。曾以《意外的旅客》（The Accidental Tourist）與《鄉愁小館的晚餐》（Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant）兩度進入普立茲獎決選名單。《意外的旅客》還曾改編為膾炙人口的電影，由威廉．赫特主演。她的個性低調，甚少接受採訪，1988年以《生命課程》（Breathing Lessons）獲普立茲獎時，她婉拒媒體採訪，原因是正在寫作。

安．泰勒擅長書寫家庭，描寫人物和日常生活細膩深刻。她是美國藝術文學院（American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters）的一員。曾任圖書館員，婚後定居於巴爾的摩，此地也成為她大部分作品的背景。

本書是她2012年完成的第19本作品。

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is her nineteenth novel; her eleventh, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.