THE STORY OF BEFORE
Book ID/图书代码： 00970012B57979
English Summary/英文概要： Narrated by watchful eleven-year-old Ruth, who is both precocious and naïve, it deals with the way that the half-heard and half-seen adult word can be misinterpreted by children – and vice versa – with fatal consequences. Really, it is about the way that parents think they know what their children are doing if they can see them at play – and the truth can be shocking.“I wonder today how no one else could see the bad thing coming. Not that I knew back then what the bad thing was; and if I had - if I’d known one of us was going to die - would there have been anything I could have done to prevent it? I play it all back in my mind, over and over. The clues were all there.”
On New Year’s Eve, eleven-year-old Ruth and her older brother and sister sit at Ruth’s bedroom window, watching the garden of their new Dublin home being covered in a thick blanket of snow. Ruth declares that a bad thing will happen in the coming year - she’s sure of it. But she cannot see the outline of that thing - she cannot know that it will change their lives utterly, that the shape of their future will be carved into two parts; the before and the after. Or that it will break her heart and break her family. This is Ruth’s story. It is the story of before.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 孩子的世界看似天真無知
其實遠比大人想像的還敏感、複雜、殘酷在大人和孩子之間，明明對彼此的世界半知半解，卻又硬是用自己的思維去試圖理解對方。而在經過曲解後，終導致無法挽回的致命後果…。
10歲的Ruth敏感纖細，擁有過人的觀察力，每個人的舉手投足、話中話、表情變化都逃不過她的眼睛。週遭的人總是對她的「特異功能」一臉詫異，Ruth也常常因此感到不被信任。
Ruth的媽媽生了個小寶寶Kev，一家子因而從擁擠的都市搬到寬敞的郊區。Ruth的父母以為新生活可以給孩子更多的玩伴，以及更幸福的生活。在這個社區裡，孩子的活動區域被住家包圍，他們的一舉一動都在父母的視線內。父母以為自己熟知孩子們的一切，以為孩子仍是不懂世事，會全盤相信大人說的話，卻不知在那個看似天真無知的世界裡，毒素早已悄悄潛入，埋下悲劇的種子...。
對孩子而言，新環境中異樣的眼光、欺凌、格格不入，大人的愛恨糾葛都對他們產生巨大的影響，甚至牽連無辜的寶寶Kev，也將Ruth的世界一分為二，在心上刻下無法抹滅的傷痕…。
(Eva)
Awards/获奖情况：
About the Author/作者介绍： Susan Stairs自小住在愛爾蘭，長年投入藝術工作，寫了許多介紹愛爾蘭藝術和藝術家的著作。2009年時她取得都柏林大學創意寫作碩士學位，同年她的短篇故事《The Rescue》獲得當年度評審，普立茲獎得主Richard Ford青睞，列入Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Awards決選名單中。本書是她的第一部小說。
SUSAN STAIRS has lived in Ireland since early childhood. Involved in the art business for many years, she has written extensively about Irish art and artists. She received an MA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin in 2009 and was shortlisted for the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award in the same year.
Format:HARDCOVER
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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