THE HOUSEMAID’S DAUGHTER
Book ID/图书代码： 06140511B49347
English Summary/英文概要： THE HOUSEMAID’S DAUGHTER is a startling and thought-provoking debut novel which intricately portrays the drama, dynamics and heartbreak of two women against the backdrop of a beautiful yet divided land.
Duty and love collide on the arid plains of central South Africa.
Cathleen Harrington leaves her home in Ireland in 1919 to travel to South Africa and marry the fiancé she has not seen for five years. Isolated and estranged in a harsh landscape, she finds solace in her diary and the friendship of her housemaid’s daughter, Ada. Cathleen recognises in her someone she can love and respond to in a way that she cannot with her own husband and daughter. Under Cathleen’s tutelage, Ada grows into an accomplished pianist, and a reader who cannot resist turning the pages of the diary, discovering the secrets Cathleen sought to hide.
When Ada is compromised and finds she is expecting a mixed-race child, she flees her home, determined to spare Cathleen the knowledge of her betrayal, and the disgrace that would descend upon the family. Scorned within her own community, Ada is forced to carve a life for herself, her child, and her music. But Cathleen still believes in Ada, and risks the constraints of apartheid to search for her and persuade her to return with her daughter. Beyond the cruelty, there is love, hope - and redemption.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 震驚英美文壇，發人深省的新銳作家
原本屬於兩個不同世界的女人，勾起一段錯綜複雜的回憶
這是讓所有做母親的女人跟著心碎的秘密 1919年毅然決定隻身一人離開家鄉前往南非的凱瑟琳，千里迢迢只為與五年未見面的未婚夫結縭，但在這裡凱瑟琳卻感覺自己像個流浪在外的異鄉人。唯一的慰藉是寫日記，還有與家裡佣人的女兒艾達兩人的相處時光。在凱瑟琳的內心深處，能回應她的愛竟然不是自己的丈夫和女兒，卻是只有艾達。
在凱瑟琳的監護指導下，艾達學習蕭邦和莫札特成為一個了不起的鋼琴家，但卻也是一個偷偷讀著凱瑟琳的日記，並發現這本日記裡頭隱藏著凱瑟琳的重大秘密。
長大後的艾達，漸漸與自己的族人疏遠，她就像當初離開家鄉的凱瑟琳，希望能有自己的生活，希望能探索音樂的奧妙，體驗並決定自己的人生。但艾達的一切卻是不斷受到周遭人的蔑視與阻礙，尤其受到種族隔離制度的約束，使艾達慢慢陷入危險的泥沼。而凱瑟琳該如何挽救艾達心靈的創傷，這兩個屬於不同世界的女人，該如何療癒共通的失落與悲慟…(Chris)
Awards/获奖情况：版權已售:
US - St Martin’s Press for six figure pre-empt
German rights to Droemer,
Italian to Corbaccio,
French to Presses de la Cite,
Spanish to Alianza,
Dutch to The House of Books
China to Hachette Pheonix
Holland to The House of Books,
Poland to Muza,
Turkey to Feniks.
Bulgaria to Enthusiast
Croatia to Znanje
Iceland to LesbokReviews
’Will leave your heart singing’ - Good Housekeeping
’A beautiful, moving book’ - Essentials
’A beautifully writte and wonderfully absorbing first novel’- Take a Break
"This is a thought-provoking debut novel that draws the reader in from the start as it portrays the drama and heartbreak of two women. A story of cruelty, love, hope, and redemption." -Daily Mercury
"[An] engrossing, epic tale." -Courier Mail
"Well structured, richly textured and engrossing." -Sunday Territorian
"An evocative and intensley rendered historical fiction set in South Africa...a dramatic, affecting and judiciously composed novel that finds deep veins of humanity in a fundamentally unjust story." -The Saturday Age
About the Author/作者介绍： Barbara Mutch is South African by birth and currently lives in Surrey but returns to South Africa every year. THE HOUSEMAID’S DAUGHTER is her first novel.
Format:电子手稿
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：
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