Barbara Halliwell, on a grant at Oxford, receives an unexpected package-a memoir by a Korean crown princess, written more than two hundred years ago. A highly appropriate gift for her impending trip to Seoul. But from whom?

The story she avidly reads on the plane turns out to be one of great intrigue as well as tragedy. The Crown Princess Hyegyong recounts in extraordinary detail the ways of the Korean court and confesses the family dramas that left her childless and her husband dead by his own hand. Perhaps it is the loss of a child that resonates so deeply with Barbara . . . but she has little time to think of such things, she has just arrived in Korea.

She meets a certain Dr. Oo, and to her surprise and delight he offers to guide her to some of the haunts of the crown princess. As she explores the inner sanctums and the royal courts, Barbara begins to feel a strong affinity for everything related to the princess and her mysterious life.

After a brief, intense, and ill-fated love affair, she returns to London. Is she ensnared by the events of the past week, of the past two hundred years, or will she pick up her life where she left it? A beautifully told and ingeniously constructed novel, this is Margaret Drabble at her best.

玛格丽特·德拉布尔，英国当代最有影响力的女作家之一。自上世纪60年代起开始文

学创作，迄今为止已有多部反映女性心声、探问女性理想生活道路的优秀小说问世。代表作有《夏日鸟笼》、《磨砺》、《金色的耶路撒冷》等。她曾担任英国国家图书联盟的主席，主持编辑了《牛津英国文学辞典》，在文学界享有相当的权威。获得过布莱克纪念奖、爱·摩·福斯特奖、莱斯文学奖等多项文学大奖，并因其卓越的文学成就于1980年获英国最高级巴忍爵士头衔（CBE）。