KINGDOM OF SIMPLICITY
Book ID/图书代码： 07633012B57509
English Summary/英文概要： In 1994, author Holly Payne (The Virgin’s Knot and The Sound of Blue) was struck by a drunk driver and left unable to walk for nearly a year. The driver wrote a letter, asking for forgiveness but rather than respond with a letter, she wrote him this book, inspired by the Amish practice of forgiveness. In Kingdom of Simplicity, Payne, a native of Amish Country Lancaster, Pennsylvania, invites the reader into the world of Eli Yoder, a misguided Amish youth, who, after losing his family in a tragic accident, has struggled with forgiving the perpetrator. True to Amish tradition, everyone he knows has moved on with their lives except him. Shamed by his unwillingness to forgive, Eli leaves home during rumspringa, the time of ’running around’ for Amish youth before they accept their faith, and searches for acceptance from the Outside World. Here a surprising friendship teaches Eli how to laugh again and prepares him to confront the biggest questions of his life. Written in simple, striking prose, Kingdom of Simplicity paints a detailed portrait of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania its countryside, its markets, and the inner-workings of its homes giving the reader an authentic perspective on the Amish that’s rare in literature. For anyone who seeks forgiveness or is confronted with the choice to forgive, Kingdom of Simplicity is an invitation to live from the heart and heal.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 如果有人奪走你家人的生命，你要如何去原諒？
如果犯下最大錯誤的人是自己，該如何才能在自責中找到生命的出口？
寬恕，可以是全世界最困難的一件事，卻也能是最簡單的一件事……
多年前媽媽告訴我，笑聲是上帝原諒我們時發出來的聲音。
我在醜惡的真相折磨時努力傾聽，可是我聽到的只是沉寂……
伊萊永遠忘不了九歲那年。
一個男孩嘲笑他長著蹼的雙手，所以他憤而偷走了對方的相機。
一場車禍奪走了他五個姊姊的生命，撞上他們的司機卻肇事逃逸。
一股不捨親人離去的衝動，使得他不顧信仰禁忌，拍下了姊姊們的照片。
自此，嘲笑喚醒了伊萊的自卑，異於常人的手讓他認為自己是醜陋的，即使面對真愛也提不起勇氣追求。
意外，則在伊萊心中種下憤怒的種子，雖然他從小就被教導要寬恕、要「原諒並學著去愛那些傷害自己的人」，但他仍無法原諒那個素未謀面的肇事者。
可是伊萊最無法原諒的人是自己。因為他們的族人相信，照片會奪走一個人的靈魂－－而他，卻在姊姊們死去的時候，偷走了她們的靈魂……
《偷靈魂的男孩》是一個關於原諒與信仰的故事，荷莉．沛恩以罕見的阿米緒社會為背景，描述身懷缺陷的男孩伊萊，在經歷一場重大的變故之後，如何化解對肇事者的責怪與對自己的自責，從而原諒別人和自己，迎向溫暖與平靜心靈的過程。
本書也反映了作者自身的經驗，荷莉在一九九四年曾遭酒駕司機撞傷，有將近一年的時間無法行走。肇事者寄了一封信請求她的原諒，但荷莉沒有回信，而是寫了這本書來回答他。
透過崇尚和平、純樸虔誠的阿米緒人，和他們特殊的族群文化，我們可以明白「原諒」不僅是一種高尚的情操，同時也是療癒創傷的一股溫柔力量。人生路上的每個顛簸、每個挫折，都有其存在的意義，都在教我們如何去體會生命的美妙時刻。(Sandy)
Awards/获奖情况：Some praise for KINGDOM OF SIMPLICITY:
KINGDOM OF SIMPLICITY tells a story about scars, literal and metaphoric. Like the culture of the Amish she has chosen to explore, Holly Payne tells a gripping story with quiet grace, economy and contained (but never absent) emotion. It’s a gem." - Joyce Maynard
"Holly Payne has graced us with a guide to forgiveness through the mechanism of an enjoyable and well-written story. Rich characters and compelling insights allow us to understand and hopefully use the peace her protagonist struggles to find...." - Frederic Luskin, Ph.D. author of Forgive for Good (director of Stanford Forgiveness Projects)
"I marveled at the depth of research and felt completely immersed in the culture and customs of the Pennsylvania Amish. With persistently graceful prose, Holly Payne builds a world that we are heartbroken to leave when the story ends. A beautiful, literary treasure box." - Erika Mailman, author of The Witch’s Trinity
"An unforgettable tale of loss, hope, and redemption that establishes Holly Payne as one of our finest literary fiction writers . . . Eli’s journey resonates with our human need to find meaning in an often incomprehensible world." - C.W. Gortner, author of The Last Queen
About the Author/作者介绍： 南加大藝術創作碩士。同時身兼小說家、劇作家與寫作輔導師等數職，並創辦天空作家寫作工作坊（Skywriter Series Writing Workshops）。霍莉每年夏天都在落磯山的天空作家山莊舉辦寫作營，輔助全國的作家們寫作和修改他們的故事。
霍莉的處女作《處女情節》（The Virgin’s Knot）在美國出版便獲得維吉尼亞聯邦大學創意寫作藝術碩士班提名小說新人獎，並成為康郡時報讀書俱樂部選書、博多書店原聲書二○○二年精選書，與邦諾連鎖書店的「發現優秀新作家」；更行銷多達九個國家。
本書可以視為荷莉自身經驗的反映。因為在一九九四年，她曾遭酒駕司機撞傷，其後將近一年無法走路；在那之後，她收到一封肇事者請求原諒的信，但荷莉沒有回信，而是寫了這本書回答他。
霍莉在蘭卡斯特郡住過十八年，現在她和她丈夫住在北加州。
Holly is an internationally published novelist and teacher living in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter. Her novel, Kingdom of Simplicity, is the winner of a Marin Arts Council Grant, first place winner for a Benjamin Franklin Award 2010 and recently won Grand Prize for the Writers Digest Self-Published Book Awards 2011. She also wrote The Sound of Blue (Dutton, Plume) and The Virgin’s Knot (Dutton, Plume). This one was published in nine countries and selected as a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers and Border’s Original Voices book.
A screenwriter and private writing coach, Payne spent seven years teaching screenwriting and story development at the Academy of Art University and has spent five years with the faculty of the MFA Writing Program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She is the author of The Virgin’s Knot and The Sound of Blue. Published in nine countries, The Virgin’s Knot received critical acclaim as a Contra Costa Times Book Club Pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection 2002, a Border’s Original Voices Book 2002 and was nominated for The First Novelist Award by the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Virginia Commonwealth University. Payne’s second novel, The Sound of Blue, is set during the Balkan conflict and is based on a true story of a Serbian refugee who she befriended while teaching English in southeastern Hungary. She received a BA in journalism from the University of Richmond and a MFA from the Master of Professional Writing Program at USC where she produced her first film. She has lived and worked in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hungary, Turkey, Croatia and continues to travel in search of stories that illuminate the endangered people and places of the world. An avid bicyclist and hiker, she calls the Rocky Mountains of Crested Butte, Colorado her second home and leads a writing retreat there each summer. She is a member of Women For Women International and is currently at work on a new novel of historical fiction set in Bulgaria.
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