Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With Midwives , he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In The Buffalo Soldier , he introduced us to one of contemporary literature’s most beloved foster children. And in Before You Know Kindness , he plumbed animal rights, gun control, and what it means to be a parent.

Chris Bohjalian’s riveting fiction keeps us awake deep into the night. As The New York Times has said, “Few writers can manipulate a plot with Bohjalian’s grace and power.” Now he is back with an ambitious new novel that travels between Jay Gatsby’s Long Island and rural New England, between the Roaring Twenties and the twenty-first century.

When college sophomore Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bicycle through Vermont’s back roads, her life is forever changed. Formerly outgoing, Laurel withdraws into her photography and begins to work at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of photographs that he won’t let anyone see. When Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel discovers that he was telling the truth: before he was homeless, Bobbie Crocker was a successful photographer who had indeed worked with such legends as Chuck Berry, Robert Frost, and Eartha Kitt.

As Laurel’s fascination with Bobbie’s former life begins to merge into obsession, she becomes convinced that some of his photographs reveal a deeply hidden, dark family secret. Her search for the truth will lead her further from her old life—and into a cat-and-mouse game with pursuers who claim they want to save her.

In this spellbinding literary thriller, rich with complex and compelling characters—including Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan—Chris Bohjalian takes readers on his most intriguing, most haunting, and most unforgettable journey yet.

From the Hardcover edition.

克利斯·波杰里安（Chris Bohjalian）1960年生于纽约，1982年毕业于阿默斯特学院，是《柯梦波丹》、《读者文摘》、《波士顿周日环球杂志》等多家期刊的撰稿人，并辟有个人专栏。他是美国最受欢迎的小说家之一，其作品倾向于围绕普通老百姓面对在不可预见的情况下产生的极其困难的状况，往往侧重于一个具体问题，如无家可归，动物权利和环境保护，并往往以性格为导向，围绕复杂且有缺陷的主角和次要人物循环。他的很多小说故事都发生在真实的佛蒙特州的一些虚构的城镇，以至于让众多读者误认为确有其地。

克利斯?波杰里安迄今已发表小说13部，包括曾入选《出版人周刊》“最佳好书”、“奥普拉读书俱乐部”选书的《纽约时报》畅销作品《助产士》。此外，他也有多本着作登上《纽约时报》畅销书榜。《野牛战士》2002年获颁“新英格兰最佳小说奖”。《旧金山纪事报》描述他的作品为：“平凡人物在心痛时刻所表现出来的优雅与尊严”。他的作品被翻译成26种语言，销售近500万册，其中3部作品曾被改编成电影。他和妻女现居佛蒙特州。