少女菲洛米娜年紀輕輕就懷了孕，被視為背德的墮落女子，送到修道院生活。她在那裡產下一子，兒子三歲時，修女將他賣到美國讓人收養，當時多達數千名嬰孩 有著類似的命運。菲洛米娜被迫簽署絕不過問教會處置的協議，於是，往後五十年，她再也沒見過兒子，卻一刻從未停止詢問兒子的去向。
菲洛米娜不知道的是，兒子也一直正在找自己。
在大西洋的另一端，菲洛米娜的兒子麥克長大後，成為頂尖的律師，後來更在執政黨位居要職。從出身偏僻修道院的私生子，一路爬到全世界第一強國位高權重的 地位，麥克卻始終因為不知生母是誰而痛苦：他擔心再度遭人拋棄，成長過程中努力達成養父母的期許，竭力贏得社會與家庭的關愛，同時，也過著雙面的謊言人 生……不知自己為誰所愛的他，也不確定自己能夠愛誰……
直到得知罹患了不可告人的疾病，麥克更急於知道母親的下落──面對來日無多的 生命、急於償還這一生背負的罪愆、來不及把握的愛人，他希望能完整地向人生告別。他找到自己出生的修道院，懇求修女透露出生的資料，好在生命走到盡頭前再 見母親一面。教會拒絕了。麥可孤注一擲的追尋，將為所有牽涉其中的人帶來一波波始料未及的震盪……
When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a “fallen woman.” Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him,
like thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later, Philomena decided to find him.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Philomena’s son was trying to find her. Renamed Michael Hess, he had become a leading lawyer in the first Bush administration, and he struggled
to hide secrets that would jeopardize his career in the Republican Party and endanger his quest to find his mother.
A gripping expose told with novelistic intrigue, Philomena pulls back the curtain on the role of the Catholic Church in forced adoptions and on the love between a mother and son who endured
a lifelong separation.
★本書中譯版《遲來的守護者》由麥田出版。
作者簡介
馬丁．希史密斯（Martin Sixsmith）
生於英格蘭， 曾就讀牛津大學、哈佛大學及巴黎大學。一九八〇至一九九七年擔任ＢＢＣ駐莫斯科、華盛頓、布魯塞爾與華沙的特派記者。一九九七至二〇〇二年擔任英國政府發 言人。現職為作家、節目主持人及記者。其它作品有《間諜之死：李文年科的預知死亡紀事》（The Litvinenko File: The True Story of a Death
Foretold）、《俄羅斯：野性東方的千年紀實》（Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System）、《旋轉》（Spin ）、《我聽見列寧的笑聲》（I Heard Lenin Laugh）等。
Martin Sixsmith is the author of several fiction and nonfiction books and is a former BBC journalist and director of communications for the British government. He lives in London.
Judi Dench is one of the world’s most celebrated actresses and has received numerous awards for her work, including eleven BAFTA awards, two Golden Globes, a Tony Award, and an Academy
Award. Her most recent films are The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Skyfall.
