COVENTRY: NOVEL

Book ID/图书代码： 00110908B22799

English Summary/英文概要： On the evening of November 14, 1940, Harriet stands on the roof of the cathedral in the British town of Coventry and marvels at the magnificence of frost glittering beneath a full moon. But it is a bomber’s moon. The Germans are coming to unleash destruction. For Harriet, Jeremy, the young man who shares her duties as a firewatcher, and his free-spirited mother, Maeve, this single night will resonate for the rest of their lives. In a story of breathtaking beauty, with the wondrous poetic style that has earned her international acclaim, Helen Humphreys recreates the terror of the infamous Second World War bombing raid on Coventry. As Harriet and Jeremy make their way through the burning city in search of Maeve, their trek becomes a journey of fear and awe as they witness butter from the dairy flowing down the streets in a burning stream and landmines on parachutes swimming like jellyfish out of the darkness. Cold dread brings to life both a grief and a love that Harriet thought she had put behind her forever. Drawing on actual events of that horrific night in 1940, Coventry is an astounding work, at once tense and lyrical, shocking and exquisite. Touching on themes of love, loss, loneliness and remembrance, Humphreys has crafted a story that will seize readers’ hearts and imaginations.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 知名女作家安‧胡德（Ann Hood）在推薦文寫道，此書”是輓歌同時也是新生的慶賀”。此言不假，一場可怕的夜間轟炸，改變了許多人的生命。有人失去家園、至愛，但也有意想不到的友誼與希望。生命永遠不知會再何時轉彎。
Helen Humphreys描述1940年11月14日那晚，以機械製造聞名的考文垂受到德軍的大型攻擊。主角哈麗葉在那ㄧ晚，正站在考文垂最著名的教堂頂端看著滿月月光灑落的美景，突然間德軍開始攻擊，這個歷史悠久的教堂也在這場戰爭中被摧毀。故事圍繞著三個主角，哈麗葉是個44歲的寡婦，他的丈夫在一次世界大戰中身亡，同樣擔任火災警戒員的傑若米，以及她才華洋溢卻不滿生活的母親梅芙。哈麗葉與傑若米必須穿過這個受難中的城市尋找他的母親。此書優雅而生動地描寫戰爭對於小人物造成的影響，雖然有失去、孤寂、傷心，但在災難中也充滿了愛、關懷與友誼。(VC)

Awards/获奖情况：版權已售：美國 / WW Norton，英國 / Maia，義大利 / Playground

“With stark, precise poetry, Humphreys builds a palpable, almost unbearable sense of inevitability and loss that echoes both John Hersey’s Hiroshima and Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach.”---KIRKUS (STARRED)

"For her latest book, award-winning novelist Helen Humphreys aims her clear telescopic eye on this bleak and endless night,…Humphreys’s prose is enhanced by her poetic precision, along with a flair for indelible images, exemplified in this snapshot of volunteers on the church roof: "For a few minutes the fire-watchers live up to their name - four dark figures stamped against a moonlit sky, standing sentinel on the roof of the cathedral while the edges of the city begin to curl up and burn." …Her simple, declarative sentences reel us into the novel and never let us go. She captures, most alluringly, the joyful and solitary nature of the human heart, which she renders as a swallow flying above the cathedral: swooping, soaring, untethered, free”.---Toronto Globe and Mail

"Humphreys makes such good use of her sources (and writes in such a forcefully direct way) that the fate of her characters...has something like the urgency of real life...show[ing] what civilians must endure when nations seek to destroy each other."---Toronto Star

“… there is a beautiful simplicity to Humphreys’ prose, the poet’s economy of words combined with the poet’s keen eye for the telling image”.---National Post

“Through her use of actual historical records of the bombing, Humphreys evokes the wartime atmosphere of fear and dislocation with great poignancy, but her novel also emphasizes – especially through Harriet’s stoicism and resourcefulness – the resilience of the common individual during times of exceptional challenge. Out of her grief and anguish over the losses she has sustained in both wars, Harriet discovers a strength of spirit and a long sought-after sense of purpose that allows her to selflessly tend to the needs of wounded strangers and risk her own life to ensure that mother and son are reunited”.---Quill and Quire

About the Author/作者介绍： HELEN HUMPHREYS is the author of four previous acclaimed novels: Leaving Earth, which won the City of Toronto Book Award and was named a New York Times Notable Book; Afterimage, winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize; The Lost Garden, a finalist for Canada Reads 2003; and Wild Dogs, winner of a Lambda Literary Award and one of NOW Magazine’s Top 10 Fiction Books of 2004. Her recent non-fiction work, The Frozen Thames, was a #1 national bestseller. Humphreys lives in Kingston, Ontario.
HELEN HUMPHREYS是個知名的加拿大作家。著有7本作品：
《Leaving Earth》（1998）獲得多倫多城市圖書獎(the City of Toronto Book Award)，並獲得1998紐約時報年度矚目好書(A New York Times Notable Book)提名。
《Afterimage》（2000）獲頒Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize。
《The Lost Garden》（2002）入圍2003年加拿大好書決選。
《Wild Dogs》（2004）獲得浪達同志文學獎（Lambda Literary Award）與2004年《NOW》雜誌十大好書。
《The Frozen Thames》（非小說，2007）是暢銷冠軍。

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Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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