Adrian Ludlow, a novelist with a distinguished but slightly faded reputation, is living in semi-retirement with his wife, Eleanor, in an isolated cottage beneath the flight path of London's Gatwick airport. Their old friend from college days, Sam Sharp, who has since become a successful screenplay writer, drops by unexpectedly on the way to Los Angeles. Sam is fuming over a scathing profile of himself by Fanny Tarrant, one of the new breed of pugnacious interviewers, in that day's newspaper. Together, Sam and Adrian plan to take revenge on the journalist, though Adrian is risking what he values most: his privacy. What follows is unexpected and upsetting for all of them, including Fanny.

David Lodge's delicious novella examines with characteristic wit and insight the tensions between private life and public interest in contemporary culture.

戴維•洛奇（David John Lodge，1935—）

英國著名小說傢和文學評論傢，伯明翰大學榮譽教授，英國皇傢文學院院士，以文學貢獻獲得不列顛帝國勛章和法國文藝騎士勛章。代錶作品主要有“盧密奇學院三部麯”：《換位》《小世界》和《美好的工作》；“天主教三部麯”：《大英博物館在倒塌》《你能走多遠？》和《天堂消息》；其他重要作品還有《走齣防空洞》《失聰宣判》《治療》等。並著有《小說的藝術》和《意識與小說》等多部文學批評理論文集。