具体描述
A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history--the Salem witch trials.
Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.
As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.
Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the witch trials of the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.
作者简介
Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer of historical fiction. Her adult novels are The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2009 and was named one of USA Today’s top tend books of the year, and The House of Velvet and Glass, which was a USA Today bestseller in 2011. For young adults, Katherine has written Conversion, which received the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in young adult literature, and a New York City-based literary ghost story called The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen, which was named a 2016 “Must Read” for young adults by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. In 2014 she edited The Penguin Book of Witches for Penguin Classics, a primary source reader on the history of witchcraft in England and North America which made a regional bestseller list and which has been translated into Spanish. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, her new novel for adults, will be published by Henry Holt and Co in summer 2019. She has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” the BBC, and the History Channel, and she hosted “Salem: Unmasking the Devil” for National Geographic. Her fiction has been translated into over twenty languages. In 2015 she was the visiting writer in residence at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, and she spent 2016 as a visiting scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. She holds a BA in art history and philosophy from Columbia and an MA in American and New England studies from Boston University, and she has taught American history, visual culture, and writing at BU and Cornell. Her first published works were three brief catalogue essays in an architectural monograph published by the Museum of Modern Art in 2000. A native Houstonian, she lives in New England and New York City with her family, where she is at work on her next novel. She also puts hot sauce on everything.
目录信息
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这本书的氛围营造堪称一绝，它成功地在“历史真实性”与“民间传说”之间架起了一座摇摇欲坠的桥梁。你能在字里行间感受到一股挥之不去的压抑感，那是一种源自于社会集体恐惧和对未知的敬畏所产生的集体无意识的投射。书中对社会边缘群体，那些被主流社会排斥和误解的人群的描写，尤其触动人心。作者没有将他们简单地脸谱化为邪恶或无辜，而是深入挖掘了他们处境的复杂性与悲剧性。阅读过程中，我不断地在思考，究竟是环境塑造了他们的命运，还是他们自身潜藏的特质导致了被孤立？这种对人性复杂面的探讨，超越了单纯的类型小说范畴，赋予了故事更深层次的社会学意义。同时，作者对于“记忆的不可靠性”这一母题的反复探讨，也让人深思：我们今天所相信的“历史”，究竟有多少是基于确凿证据，又有多少是基于代代相传的、被情感渲染过的叙事？这种对历史认知的反思，使得这本书具有了经久不衰的魅力。
在我看来，这本书最成功之处在于其对“人性在极端压力下的反应”的冷静观察。它没有用宏大的战争场面或灾难事件来制造戏剧冲突，而是选择将视角聚焦于日常生活的细微之处，通过那些看似微不足道的日常互动，来展现人性光辉与阴暗面的交织。主角在面对困境时的选择，总是充满着道德的灰色地带，没有绝对的英雄主义，也没有彻底的堕落，这使得人物的可信度大大提高。每一次被迫做出抉择时，那种撕扯感，那种在生存与良知之间的艰难权衡，都让读者感同身受。此外，本书在处理“沉默”这一主题上独树一帜。很多关键信息并非通过直接陈述，而是通过长久的沉默、刻意的回避以及未被言说的潜台词来传达，这种“写出来的留白”比直接的叙述更具震撼力。它迫使读者去倾听那些被压抑的声音，去关注那些被历史刻意忽略的细节。总体而言，这是一部需要投入大量心力去解读的作品，但它所给予的回报，绝不仅仅是一个故事的结局，而是一次深刻的自我审视与对历史本质的重新认识。
从结构上看，这本书采取了一种高明的双线叙事手法，虽然我不能具体提及内容，但两条时间线索的交织与呼应，体现了作者高超的布局能力。一条线索似乎在历史的迷雾中蹒跚前行，充满了未知与恐惧；而另一条线索则像是从现代的视角进行的回溯与审视，它提供了必要的锚点，让读者不至于完全迷失在那遥远的过去。更令人称奇的是，这两条看似平行的叙事，并非简单的简单叠加，而是像两条河流最终汇入同一片海洋一样，在关键时刻产生了强烈的共振和互相解释的作用。这种精密的结构设计，极大地增强了故事的张力，使得每一次从一条线索跳跃到另一条线索时，都带着一种“原来如此”的顿悟感。作者没有急于解释一切，而是将解释权留给了读者自己，迫使我们主动参与到文本的建构过程中，这种参与感极大地提升了阅读的沉浸体验。我尤其佩服作者对“误解”与“真相”的探讨，它揭示了时间如何扭曲事实，以及不同时代的人们如何根据自身的局限性来构建对世界的认知。
这本小说的开篇就如同被施了某种古老的咒语，将你一下拽入一个弥漫着尘土气息和历史阴影的世界。故事的节奏把握得极其精妙，并非那种一上来就将所有线索和盘托出的大开大合，反而更像是在薄雾中缓缓前行，每走一步，眼前才会浮现出一点点轮廓。作者在环境的描绘上展现出惊人的功力，那些十七世纪新英格兰小镇的景象，空气中似乎都能闻到木材燃烧的烟味和潮湿土地的腐殖质气息。主角的内心挣扎与外部环境的压抑感形成了完美的共振，你几乎能感受到她每一次呼吸时的沉重与不安。我尤其欣赏作者对于“边缘人”心理的刻画，那种不被群体接纳的孤独感，以及在绝望中迸发出的惊人韧性，被描摹得入木三分，使得人物形象立体而复杂。情节的推进并非线性，而是通过散落的日记片段、口述回忆以及一些似是而非的巧合交织而成，这种碎片化的叙事方式，恰恰加强了悬疑的质感——你总觉得有什么重要的信息被故意隐藏在了字里行间，促使你像一个真正的侦探一样去拼凑真相。整本书读下来，与其说是在看一个故事，不如说是在经历一场缓慢而深入的考古挖掘，每一次翻页，都像是剥开了一层又一层的历史伪装。
我必须承认，这本书的语言风格简直是一场文字的盛宴，它带着一种古典的庄严和诗意的忧郁，完全不同于当代小说那种追求简洁明快的叙事方式。作者显然沉浸在那个特定时代的研究中，笔下的对话和内心独白，既有那个时代特有的措辞与语感，又巧妙地保持了现代读者的可理解性，这种平衡拿捏得恰到好处，让人在阅读时既能感受到历史的厚重，又不至于产生阅读障碍。其中几处关于自然景象的描写，简直可以单独摘出来作为散文欣赏。比如对一场突如其来的暴风雪的描摹，不仅仅是记录天气变化，而是将其升华为一种宿命的象征，笔触细腻到让人仿佛能感受到冰碴刺痛皮肤的寒意。角色之间的情感张力也处理得极为微妙，没有那种歇斯底里的爆发，更多的是那种深埋于心底，通过一个眼神、一个不经意的动作流露出来的复杂情愫。这种内敛的力量，比任何直白的倾诉都更具穿透力，让读者不得不放慢速度，细细品味其中蕴含的千言万语。这无疑是一部需要慢读、细品的佳作，因为它所有的精髓都藏在那些看似平淡的字句之下。
