The Other Valley

預見未來的不幸，你會選擇接受還是做出改變？
文壇新星霍華德首部小說，省思如何與所愛告別，探究死亡、命運與自由意志等更大的哲學議題。

16歲的奧蒂兒‧歐薩那聰明、安靜且低調，和這個鎮上所有的人一樣，認為自己的命運早已注定。她是班上的邊緣人，在下課時，她喜歡靜靜地站在衣帽間旁，看著其他同學在外面玩耍嬉笑。
距離奧蒂兒的小鎮，往東邊有一個小鎮，往西邊有另一個小鎮，奧蒂兒在媽媽的一本書上看過這地方的地圖，三個小鎮被山群圍繞，三個小鎮的邊界都有鐵絲網，嚴禁任一邊的人隨意跨越，唯一的原因就是：這三個小鎮完全一模一樣，除了時間線。
東邊的小鎮，是小鎮的20年後；西邊的小鎮，是小鎮的20年前，負責控管邊境的是奧蒂兒小鎮上的理事會─小鎮的權力中心，為了維護時間線不被破壞護搗亂，任何人均不得隨意穿越。理事會唯一允許通過的是那些參加哀悼巡禮的人，他們必須有人陪同，帶上面具以防被認出，跨越時間回到過去，只為見已經死去的親人一面。
學校的課程即將結束，每個人都要選擇未來的出路，奧蒂兒的母親鼓勵奧蒂兒申請接受加入理事會的訓練，一旦她獲選加入，她將有資格決定誰可以跨越邊界的鐵絲網，甚至遠赴西邊的山群─或者，往另一邊前往東方的小鎮。奧蒂兒雖對自己抱有疑惑，但她通過試驗，獲得老師推薦，成為候選人之一。
一天，奧蒂兒看見學校圍籬附近有幾個奇怪的人影，他們身穿黑衣，帶著面具，並望向校園內，奧蒂兒立刻發現，那是參加哀悼巡禮的人。她急切地想知道究竟是誰，追隨他們的目光在走廊上奔跑，然後她看到─艾德蒙正在收拾他的小提琴，奧蒂兒明白了：那是艾德蒙的雙親，從東邊跨越邊界，來到奧蒂兒的小鎮，為了看他們的兒子。
艾德蒙，在奧蒂兒被霸凌時對她伸出援手的人，讓她感到學校生活不再寂寞的人，那個有趣、開朗、在學校樂團拉得一首美妙小提琴的艾德蒙，即將死亡。
但入選培訓資格的人都必須嚴正發誓，絕對不破壞、不干涉也不影響三個鎮的時間線，這也是理事會的鐵則。但奧蒂兒動搖了，當艾德蒙的死訊比預料中還快發生，奧蒂兒對自己的無能為力感到前所未有的悲傷，而她決定要改變，即便這將影響自己的未來與三個小鎮的命運...
命運是否早已被刻寫？人類是否還有自由意志可以決定自己的未來？如果我們知道心愛之人注定要先一步離開，我們願意付出多少代價好讓自己所愛的人多獲得一些時間？這本書不僅是一個動人的故事，也是一場對死亡與告別的哲學冥想，作者Scott Alexander Howard是加拿大多倫多大學哲學博士，主要研究人類記憶、情感與文學間的關係，這是他第一本小說。

*Soon to be a TV series*
Jimmy Fallon’s Book Club Top Four Pick and a PBS Book Club Pick

Sixteen-year-old Odile Ozanne is an awkward, quiet girl, but everyone knows she's destined to land a coveted seat on the Conseil.

In her apprenticeship, she competes to become one of the judges to decide who amongst the town's residents may travel across the border. If she earns the position, she'll decree who may be escorted deep into the woods, who may cross the border's barbed wire fence, who may make the arduous trek over the western mountain range - or perhaps the eastern range-to descend into the next valley over.

It's the same valley, the same town. However, to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it's twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness. The only border crossings permitted by the Conseil are mourning tours: furtive viewings of the dead in towns where the dead are still alive.

Odile, wise beyond her years, will surely pass the Conseil's vetting. But when she happens upon a mourning tour she wasn't supposed to see, she realizes her dear friend Edme's parents have crossed the border from the east, from twenty years in the future, to view their son still alive in Odile's present.

Edme, who's so funny and light. Edme, who's a violin virtuoso at just sixteen. Edme, who's the first boy to even see Odile, to really like her.... And it's Edme who's going to die.

Sworn to secrecy by the Conseil in order to preserve the timeline, Odile finds herself drawn even closer to the doomed boy. When Edme dies far sooner than Odile expects, when she does nothing to thwart his fate, she's deeply shaken. The loss, her foreknowledge, the weight of her rare and varied grief all throw Odile's own future, her adult life, into a devastating, downward spiral.