First Love

　　30多歲的作家Neve，嫁給了年長她許多的Edwyn。Edwyn因為病痛，情緒時常起伏不定，他們的婚姻逐漸陷入一種病態的拉扯，總是在親暱甜蜜與毀滅性的爭吵間擺盪。

　　Neve試圖從頭審視她的人生，關於她是如何走到這裡，在這棟可以俯瞰西布朗普頓站的公寓裡，過著寂寞、情感上傷痕累累的生活。她回憶起在她幼時即離異的父母──自我中心、漠然的母親，以及暴虐、有強烈控制欲的父親(有時Edwyn控訴她是在重演她父母糟糕的婚姻，但他錯了，他們自己的婚姻是另外一種完全不同的失敗)，她也想起她過去的生活、曾經的愛與虧欠。即便這段關係充滿缺陷和傷害，但Neve總能將自己從反覆的衝突中抽離，包容身邊最親密的人的不完美，這其中有著真正的浪漫。

　　自踏入文壇起，Gwendoline Riley即展現精湛的文字功力，她擅長以第一人稱敘述及簡潔的文體，描繪出女性的內心世界。本書主角Neve和作者的背景有諸多相似之處(同樣都是30幾歲的作家，父母都早已離婚，Riley的詩人丈夫Alan Jenkins也較她年長不少)，模糊了虛構和現實間的界線，也令外界好奇這是否是一本半自傳小說。

　　本書呈現了崩解的婚姻中，女人的掙扎與自我探索，Riley以微觀的角度，細細檢視主角平淡、幾乎令人難以忍受的日常，在她筆下，所有的平庸都變得荒誕甚至美麗。這部優美細膩、令人著迷的作品，情節時而溫暖、時而苦澀，將深深觸動所有愛過、失去過的靈魂。(文/博客來編譯)

　　Shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction

　　Catastrophically ill-suited for each other, and forever straddling a line between relative calm and explosive confrontation, Neve and her husband, Edwyn, live together in London. For the moment they have reached a place of peace in their relationship, but past battles have left scars. As Neve recalls the decisions that brought her to Edwyn, she describes other loves and other debts—from her bullying father and her self-involved mother, to a musician she struggled to forget.

　　Drawing us into the battleground of this marriage, Gwendoline Riley tells a transfixing story of mistakes and misalliances, of helplessness and hostility, in which both husband and wife have played a part. Could this possibly be, nonetheless, a story of love?