The Silver Star

　　撼動全球的回憶錄《玻璃城堡》作者珍娜‧沃爾斯深入人心的成長小說
　　美國獨立書商、歐普拉讀書俱樂部六月必讀選書

　　在這不完美的世界，你願意為了正義挺身而出嗎？

　　故事發生在1970年的加州，12歲的小豆子與15歲的姊姊莉茲被宣稱要去找尋自我的藝術家母親夏綠蒂遺棄。某天放學回家，小豆子發現有警車停在門口，他擔心警方會強迫他們與母親分開，便和姊姊搭乘巴士去維吉尼亞州找舅舅。

　　由於母系家族在維吉尼亞已落腳很長一段時間，小豆子到舅舅家後聽聞不少關於母親年輕時的流言蜚語。另一方面，為了自力更生，她和姊姊一起到當地磨坊領班傑瑞手下工作。傑瑞不但是村內有名的惡人，壓榨勞工與虐待妻兒的事情時有耳聞。

　　秋天新學期開始後，小豆子輕鬆地融入環境，結交新朋友，反倒是向來聰穎機靈的莉茲卻漸漸變得沈默寡言。究竟莉茲發生了什麼事？一直在姊姊羽翼保護下的小豆子，能夠挺身而出為姊姊挑戰這個不公正的世界嗎？（文／博客來編譯）

　　The Silver Star, Jeannette Walls has written a heartbreaking and redemptive novel about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world—a triumph of imagination and storytelling.

　　It is 1970 in a small town in California. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, a woman who “found something wrong with every place she ever lived,” takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that’s been in Charlotte’s family for generations.

　　An impetuous optimist, Bean soon discovers who her father was, and hears many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Because money is tight, Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town—a big man who bullies his workers, his tenants, his children, and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister—inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, nonconformist. But when school starts in the fall, it’s Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz.

　　Jeannette Walls, supremely alert to abuse of adult power, has written a deeply moving novel about triumph over adversity and about people who find a way to love each other and the world, despite its flaws and injustices.