李翊雲 (Yiyun Li) 的短篇小說集 《星期三的孩子》(Wednesday's Child) 入圍了 2024 年普立茲虛構小說獎，展現了她處理生命傷痕時那種冷靜卻又極致優美的文學功底。 這部令人驚嘆的新短篇小說集橫跨十年創作，涵蓋了喪失、疏離、衰老與當代生活的怪誕——出自《鵝之書》獲獎作者李翊雲之手。 一位哀傷的母親為她失去的每個人製作了一份試算表。一位教授與她的美髮師發展出了一種困擾的親密關係。而每年，一名焦躁不安的女子都會收到一封來自幾州之隔、年齡比她大一倍的陌生男子的電子郵件。在李翊雲的故事中，人們努力追求平凡的存在，直到這種努力變得難以維繫，直到表面破裂，而巨大的神祕力量——死亡、暴力、疏離——顯露出來。即使是日常生活也充滿了意義，點綴著抹不去的細節：一罐偷來的蜂蜜、一堆受傷的螞蟻、一張隱藏多年的照片，直到它必須被看見的那一刻。 李翊雲是一位具有驚人原創性的作家，一位對立面的煉金術士：溫柔卻不感傷，形而上卻又直白，幽默卻又駭人，無所不知卻又敏銳地意識到我們所能知道的是多麼有限。她因長篇小說和回憶錄而深受喜愛，如今她回歸早期的創作形式，彙集了多篇短篇小說以及一部從未在英國出版過的傑出中篇小說。綜合來看，《星期三的孩子》以李翊雲標誌性的、令人不安的美感與灼人的智慧，闡述了生存的真正代價。 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2024 'Any book by Yiyun Li is a cause for celebration' SIGRID NUNEZ 'One of our finest living authors' NEW YORK TIMES 'Bruising, beautiful' GUARDIAN A dazzling new collection of short stories written over a decade, spanning loss, alienation, ageing and the strangeness of contemporary life – from Yiyun Li, the prize-winning author of The Book of Goose A grieving mother makes a spreadsheet of everyone she’s lost. A professor develops a troubled intimacy with her hairdresser. And every year, a restless woman receives an email from a strange man twice her age and several states away. In Yiyun Li’s stories, people strive for an ordinary existence until doing so becomes unsustainable, until the surface cracks and grand mysterious forces – death, violence, estrangement – come to light. And even everyday life is laden with meaning, studded with indelible details: a filched jar of honey, a mound of wounded ants, a photograph kept hidden for many years, until it must be seen. Li is a breathtakingly original writer, an alchemist of opposites: tender and unsentimental, metaphysical and blunt, funny and horrifying, omniscient and yet acutely aware of just how much we cannot know. Beloved for her novels and memoirs, she returns here to her earliest form, gathering short stories and a remarkable novella never before published in the UK. Taken together, the stories in Wednesday's Child articulate the true cost of living with all Li’s trademark unnerving beauty and searing wisdom. ‘Quiet, subtle and often agonisingly wrenching … Li explores the brittle fractures within the human heart … A shimmering meditation’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘Strands of melancholy are braided through Li’s tender, thoughtful stories’ DAILY MAIL ‘Against the backdrop of threat, Li’s characters meditate coolly on meaning and mortality’ OBSERVER

以下書介取自：聯經出版事業股份有限公司《鵝之書》 「我們在世最傑出的作家之一。」《紐約時報》書評 當代國際文壇最負盛名的華裔女作家　 ☆ 2023年PEN/Faulkner國際筆會／福克納小說獎得主 ☆ ☆ 《Times時代雜誌》2022年度選書 ☆ ☆ 《紐約客》2022年度選書 ☆ ☆ 《Slate》媒體網站2022年度十大好書 ☆ ☆ 《金融時報》與麥肯錫推薦，2022年度文學選書 ☆ 只有愛與寫作，並不足夠我們永遠在一起…… 兩位聰慧的法國鄉村少女，以寫作征服了整個世界，卻一輩子無法尋回，彼此宿命共生的親密關係。所謂的幸福啊，如同一群不幸的鵝。 這是關於在戰後法國鄉間成長的兩位農家少女──艾妮絲和法碧安的故事。故事的開始，已移居美國的艾妮絲收到兒時摯友法碧安死於難產的消息，勾起她對童年這段複雜友誼的種種回憶。在這個貧窮、死氣沉沉的小鎮裡，法碧安是聰慧並充滿想像力與反叛精神的主導者；而艾妮絲則相對溫順、內向，總是追隨法比安的各種奇思異想。小說以倒敘重現兩位少女從小玩耍、彼此陪伴依賴，共同創造出一個只屬於兩人親密又私密的世界。 為了對抗無趣與壓抑，法碧安突發奇想，策劃了一本驚世駭俗的寫作計劃，由她構思故事、艾妮絲動筆並掛名。在愛好文藝的郵政局長德沃先生的幫助下，她們完成了一本書，並由他引薦投稿。一切來得如此突然，該書出版後大獲好評，艾妮絲因而成為「天才少女作家」得以進入英國上流社會的寄宿學校，面對階級差異與自我認知的挑戰，開啟了一段關於名聲、藝術、操控與自由的新旅程。但兩人之間始終的不對等與落差，讓這段友誼日漸失控，最終面臨無法挽回的時刻而漸行漸遠，各隨己命。 《鵝之書》娓娓道出兩名少女之間的深厚友誼和複雜情感。這部作品靈感來自作者某天腦海中突然出現的一段關於幸福本質的私人對話，並巧妙融合了戰後法國鄉村、巴黎、英國寄宿學校和美國賓州的多重場景。角色言談，思索記憶與意義的關係，書中處處可見對生命本質的哲學探問。 A propulsive, seductive new novel about friendship, exploitation and intimacy from the prize-winning author of Where Reasons End Fabienne is dead. Her childhood best friend, Agnès, receives the news in America, far from the French countryside where the two girls were raised – the place that Fabienne helped Agnès escape ten years ago. Now, Agnès is free to tell her story. As children in a backwater town, they’d built a private world, invisible to everyone but themselves – until Fabienne hatched the plan that would change everything, launching Agnès on an epic trajectory through fame, fortune, and terrible loss. ‘Beguiling … A shimmering, unsettling tale of exploitation and manipulation’ Daily Mail ‘Haunting and strange … Li has made her style her own’ Tessa Hadley, Guardian ‘A dazzling, subtle, skilful knockout’ Charlotte Mendelson, author of The Exhibitionist