约翰·欧文,John Irving,被美国文坛泰斗冯内果喻为“美国最重要的幽默作家”的约翰·欧文,是当代最知名的小说家之一,他作品中所呈现的高超的说故事技巧与优美的文学性,使人们常将他与狄更斯和J. D. 塞林格等重量级小说家相提并论。他的小说不仅赢得书评界的一致推崇,而且叫好又叫座,是西方最畅销的小说家之一。 欧文生于1942年美国新罕布什尔州的埃克塞特,即使患有阅读困难症,仍无损于他自小对书籍的热爱,就读于埃克塞特学院时,便培养出对写作的兴趣,且一直持续至今。他的作品由于戏剧性强、情节精彩细腻,每每受到好莱坞的青睐,将之改编成电影。1999年,欧文更以《苹果酒屋的法则》(The Cider House Rules)一片,拿下奥斯卡金像奖改编剧本奖,成为第一位获得此项奥斯卡金像奖的作家。他还著有《新罕布什尔旅馆》、《盖普眼中的世界》、《为欧文·米尼祈祷》、《寡居的一年》等书,他的作品曾被翻译成20余种语言文字,欧洲各国几乎都有他作品的译本,对他极为推崇与肯定。
RuthCole is a complex, often self-contradictory character--a "difficult"woman. By no means is she conventionally "nice," but she will neverbe forgotten.
Ruth's story is told in threeparts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her--onLong Island, in the summer of 1958--Ruth is only four.
The second window into Ruth'slife opens in the fall of 1990, when Ruth is an unmarried woman whose personallife is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts herjudgment in men, for good reason.
A Widow for One Year closes in the autumn of 1995,when Ruth Cole is a forty-one-year-old widow and mother. She's about to fall inlove for the first time.
Richly comic, as well as deeplydisturbing A Widow for One Yearis a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force. Both ribald anderotic, it is also a brilliant novel about the passage of time and therelentlessness of grief.
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