2018年冬季華爾街日報推薦的十二本優良讀物之一

THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER

by Emily X.R. Pan (March 20)

下文摘錄自2018年1月10日Wall Street Journal ：

Cristina Arreola, senior books editor at the female-focused news and culture site Bustle

Fifteen-year-old Leigh Chen Sanders, desperate to understand why her mother has killed herself, has an encounter with a giant, long-tailed red bird that lands on her porch, taps its claws on the wood and says her name in her mother’s voice. In this young-adult novel—the author’s debut—Leigh is not trying to be poetic when she says her dead mother has returned to Earth as bird. After the creature flies away, Leigh launches a search for the bird that takes her to Taiwan, where she meets her grandparents for the first time and uncovers family secrets. Ms. Pan writes: “What can you do when all you see behind closed eyes are the flashes of your mother, your mother, your mother, miserable, alive, beautiful, sick, warm, smiling, dead? But not dead. Not exactly. My mother is a bird.” 

中譯：

十五歲的  Leigh Chen Sanders，下定決心要找到母親自殺的原因。有一天，眼見一隻長尾巴的紅色巨鳥從空中飛來，在她家前廊落腳，先是用雙爪將地板敲得作響，繼而張嘴朝她呼叫起來，她十分震驚，那是媽媽的聲音啊！清晰地呼喚著她的名字！作者筆下的 Leigh Chen Sanders 不是在朗誦詩句，她逢人訴說媽媽死後變成一隻鳥飛來喚她，絕非矯情營造，根本就是她的親身經歷，她覺得應該面對這個事實。紅鳥飛走了，人海茫茫不知去向，Leigh下定決心要找到紅鳥，於是去了媽媽的故鄉台灣，見到未曾謀面的外公外婆，也意外地揭露了家族的秘密。潘女士寫道：“閉上雙眼，腦中一幕幕閃過的都是母親、母親、母親的一切，有痛苦掙扎、有安然生活、有美麗，有重病、有溫暖，有歡笑，最後竟死了。 哦......不！不！不對！我的母親還沒死。我的母親如今成了一隻鳥。“

預購網址 ：https://www.amazon.com/Astonishing-Color-After-Emily-X-R/dp/031646399X/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1503976742&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Astonishing+Color+of+After#customerReviews