Brad Watson's first novel has been eagerly awaited since his breathtaking, award-winning debut collection of short stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men. Here, he fulfills that literary promise with a humorous and jaundiced eye. Finus Bates has loved Birdie Wells since the day he saw her do a naked cartwheel in the woods in 1916. Later he won her at poker, lost her, then nearly won her again after the mysterious poisoning of her womanizing husband. Does Vish, the old medicine woman down in the ravine, hold the key to Birdie's elusive character? Or does Parnell, the town undertaker, whose unspeakable desires bring lust for life and death together? Or does the secret lie with some other colorful old-timer in Mercury, Mississippi, not such a small town anymore? With "graceful, patient, insightful and hilarious" prose (USA Today), Brad Watson chronicles Finus's steadfast devotion and Mercury's evolution from a sleepy backwater to a small city. With this "tragicomic story of missed opportunities and unjust necessities" (Fred Chappell), "Southern storytelling is alive and well in Watson's capable hands" (Kirkus Reviews starred review). "His work may remind readers of William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, or Flannery O'Connor, but has a power and a charm all its own, more pellucid than the first, gentler than the second, and kinder than the third" (Baltimore Sun).

布萊德．華生　Brad Watson

生於美國密西西比州美里地安鎮（Meridian）。曾在阿拉巴馬州與佛羅里達州的墨西哥灣區擔任新聞記者，之後曾在阿拉巴馬州立大學教授文學及創作技巧，並曾在哈佛大學教授小說創作。短篇小說集《人狗末日》（Last Days of Dog-Man）曾獲美國藝術文學院獎（American Academy of Arts and Letters）蘇考夫曼（Sue Kaufman）新人獎的殊榮。

譯者簡介：

卓妙容

臺灣大學會計系畢業，密西根州立大學企管碩士。現任職於美國矽谷科技公司財務部。譯有《打造暢銷書》（商周）、《無盡的盛宴》、《鹽之書》（麥田）。