Gathering of Waters

　　流淌過這片土地的水全都是淚，而且多到幾乎要氾濫的程度！

　　跟許多典型的美國南方小鎮一樣：
　　莫尼鎮原來有很多紅皮膚的人，但不是死了就是跑了；
　　後來有許多白皮膚的人，不是牧師就是地主；
　　再後來有更多黑皮膚的人，不是奴隸就是罪犯。
　　但跟其他小鎮不同的是，它有很多故事可說，
　　而所有故事都要從一個被謀殺的女子說起。

　　妓女伊絲特年輕時也曾是個美女，美得所有女人都不想和她交朋友，因為所有男人或丈夫都只想融化在她兩股之間。不幸的是，沒有人真正愛過她。在遭人割喉慘死後，她化為一縷冤魂，附身恣意勾搭男子，似乎想證明愛根本不存在。

　　就在伊絲特幾乎要睡遍鎮上所有男人前，一場惡水襲來，淹沒了小鎮和鎮上所有是非。多年以後，一個黑人男孩對一個白人女孩吹口哨示愛，女孩欣然接受。數日後男孩被人發現遭凌虐致死，而殺人的兇手正是伊絲特新附身的對象。

　　《淚流域》是一部橫跨二十世紀、圍繞著一個美國南方小鎮家族而進行的魔幻寫實小說。特別的是，本書的敘事者是這座百年小鎮，它以回憶的方式述說著曾發生在這片土地上的事、人們的愛恨與喜悲，或白雲蒼狗，或滄海桑田，讀之令人掩卷唏噓不已。

　　Gathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.

　　Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.

　　Forty years later, after the death of her husband, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River. The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion.

　　Gathering of Waters mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.

　　★本書中譯版《淚流域》由杏仁體文化出版。

作者簡介
 
柏妮絲．麥費登（Bernice L. McFadden）

　　她創作了七本大受好評的小說，包括經典的Sugar及Glorious。Nowhere Is a Place一書曾被提名為華盛頓郵報二○○六年的年度最佳小說。曾兩度入圍赫斯頓∕萊特（Hurston/Wright）小說獎決選名單，也曾進入有色人種民權促進協會形象獎（NAACP）決審名單，並獲得美國圖書館協會黑人核心小組（BCALA）授予兩個小說獎。她的小說The Warmest December曾獲二○○一年普立茲小說獎提名，更得到諾貝爾文學獎得主童妮．摩里森的讚賞，稱之「深烙人心且想像力圓熟無比」。目前居於美國紐約布魯克林，也就是她的故鄉。

　　Bernice L. McFadden is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels including the classic Sugar and Glorious, which was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, selected as the debut title for the One Book, One Harlem program, and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. She is a two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of two fiction honor awards from the BCALA. Her sophomore novel, The Warmest December, was praised by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison as "searing and expertly imagined." McFadden lives in Brooklyn, New York.