The Paying Guests

當房子裡住進了陌生人，會發生戀情、還是謀殺，英國當代Sarah Waters集性感、懸疑、歷史感於一身新作《The Paying Guests》一本融合秘密戀情、謀殺事件的小說，英國當代重要作家Sarah Waters作品《The Paying Guests》，精彩到書評要你忘記《The Fifty Shades of Grey》，因為閱讀這位入圍布克獎三次的小說家，你可以同時擁有極佳品味，和同樣刺激的快感。相同於最近暢銷的《The Girl on the Train》，書中的秘密戀情都與第三者有關。但《The Paying Guests》的場景設定在1920年代的戰後倫敦，在這蕭條又緊張的年代中，軍人們幻想破滅，窮人和失業者渴望改變。在一所看似上流的安靜宅邸，男人們─兄弟、丈夫、甚至是僕人都一去不復返。而宅邸的主人，年輕的Frances和寡母Mrs. Wray，為了節省開支，不得不將邀請分租客來家裡同住。一對年輕的夫妻來同住並分擔開銷。然而，這間大房子裡，住進陌生人後將會產生了奇妙的空間侷促感，一段秘密的愛戀在Frances與其中一人之間悄悄發生了，然後是懸疑的謀殺案，接二連三，人心惶惶。Frances想要獻出她的真心，但是在打開大房子一道又一道門，在走廊的盡頭，她會得到情人，還是失去性命？Sarah Waters是英國當代重要的小說作家，作品有《輕舔絲絨》、《The Little Stranger》(小陌生人)，她曾三度入圍布克文學獎決選，擅長以優美的文詞、呈現扣人心弦的情節，並同時帶有濃濃的歷史氛圍。除此之外，並寫作有關性別、性向與歷史的學術論文。The New York Times bestselling novel that has been called “a tour de force” (Wall Street Journal), “unputdownable” (The Washington Post), “a delicious hothouse of a novel” (USA Today), “effortless” (The Economist), “seductive” (Vanity Fair) and “pitch perfect” (Salon) “Superb, bewitching…Forget about Fifty Shades of Grey; this novel is one of the most sensual you will ever read, and all without sacrificing either good taste or a “G” rating” – NPR  “One of the year’s most engrossing and suspenseful novels…a love affair, a shocking murder, and a flawless ending … Will keep you sleepless for three nights straight and leave you grasping for another book that can sustain that high.” — Entertainment Weekly (A rating)“Volcanically sexy, sizzingly smart, plenty bloody and just plain irresistible.” —USA Today (4 stars)It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet.