An Unnecessary Woman

　　72歲的Aaliya獨居在黎巴嫩的貝魯特，孓然的一生令她自覺是個不被需要的女人。疼愛她的父親早逝，改嫁的母親態度始終冷淡，加上成長文化背景使然，在在讓她認定自己是家中可有可無的角色。20歲因生育問題離婚、開始單獨生活的她投身於翻譯工作，將每一本喜愛的小說翻譯成阿拉伯文維生，完成後手稿便束之高閣、從未閱讀。

　　即使身軀因為年紀漸長而有些不如以往，基於對書寫的盲目熱情，被書堆圍繞的Aaliya每一年仍會啟動新的翻譯計劃，直到一個不曾預期的災禍降臨，擾亂了她平靜的銀髮時光……。

　　作者拉比．阿拉米丁透過一位中東老婦人從壓抑的童年到老年獨居生活的自述，以深情詩意的筆觸側寫出深受內戰影響的城市轉變與沉浸小說、詩歌裡的文學人生。（文/博客來編譯）

　　“Beautiful and absorbing.”—New York Times

　　An Unnecessary Woman is a breathtaking portrait of one reclusive woman’s late-life crisis, which garnered a wave of rave reviews and love letters to Alameddine’s cranky yet charming septuagenarian protagonist, Aaliya, a character you “can’t help but love” (NPR). Aaliya’s insightful musings on literature, philosophy, and art are invaded by memories of the Lebanese Civil War and her volatile past. As she tries to overcome her aging body and spontaneous emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left.

　　Here, the gifted Rabih Alameddine has given us a nuanced rendering of one woman's life in the Middle East and an enduring ode to literature and its power to define who we are.