Robert R. McCammon captivated millions of readers with his storytelling power in such bestsellers as Mine, Swan Song and Stinger. Now he has created his tour de force: "Boy's Life, " a masterpiece of magic and mystery, of the splendors of growing up in a small town, and of the wonders beyond. Narrated by one of the most engaging young voices in modern fiction, "Boy's Life" takes us back to our own childhoods, when bicycles were enchanted steeds and anything was possible....Zephyr, Alabama, has been an idyllic home for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson...a place where monsters swim in the belly of the river, and friends are forever. Then, on a cold spring morning in 1964, as Cory accompanies his father on his milk route, they see a car plunge into a lake some say is bottomless.A desperate rescue attempt brings Cory's father face-to-face with a vision that will haunt him: a murdered man, naked and beaten, handcuffed to the steering wheel, a copper wire knotted around his neck. As Cory struggles to understand the forces of good and evil at work in his hometown, from an ancient woman called the Lady who conjures snakes and hears the voices of the dead, to a violent clan of moonshiners, he realizes that not only his life but his father may hang in the balance....

羅伯特•麥卡濛，1952年生於美國亞拉巴馬州。少年時代，他迷上愛倫•坡的作品，因此，他的作品有濃濃的超自然元素和哥特式小說的靈異色彩，彌漫著美國南方風情和淡淡的思鄉情緒。

從1978年起，他從驚悚類型小說展開寫作生涯。到1985年，他開始成為《紐約時報》排行榜的暢銷明星。然而，他作品不多，一種題材都隻寫瞭一本，而且每一部作品都超越瞭類型小說的局限，展現齣非凡的人物刻畫功力，比影像更逼真的描寫能力，對懸疑氣氛的掌控爐火純青。而且，即使後來躋身暢銷作傢的行列，他依然堅持自己對寫作的信念。

他說：“我從來不是為錢而寫作，也永遠不會。我辦不到。我深信，寫作是為瞭要寫齣自己想看，而且會看得入迷的書。我無法忍受重復。我隻想寫自己從來沒有寫過的東西。寫作是為瞭創造齣一個世界，創造人物，然後親手賦予他們生命。就像畫一幅人像，眼看著畫裏的人活起來瞭，那種快樂沒有任何東西比得上。”

1991年，他寫齣瞭一本“為自己而寫”的書——《奇風歲月》。

二十年來，《奇風歲月》逐漸被美國中學采用為文學教材，和《麥田裏的守望者》、《殺死一隻反舌鳥》等書並列為經典。其中，《奇風歲月》是最能讓學生讀得廢寢忘食、終生迷戀的一本。美國得剋薩斯州一位中學老師說：“這本書是每一位老師的夢想。這個令人沉迷到廢寢忘食的故事，讓很多痛恨讀書的學生變成嗜書如命的書蟲，同時完成瞭他們人生教育的第一課。”