Child of God

　　By the author of the critically acclaimed "Border Trilogy", "Child of God" is a taut, chilling novel that plumbs the depths of human degradation. Lester Ballard, a violent, solitary and introverted young backwoodsman dispossessed on his ancestral land, is released from jail and allowed to haunt the hill country of East Tennessee, preying on the population with his strange lusts. McCarthy transforms commonplace brushes with humanity - in homesteads, stores and in the woods - into stunning scenes of the comic and the grotesque, and as the story hurtles toward its unforgettable conclusion, depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.

　　'Demands its reader's attention from the opening sentence' - "Newsweek".

　　'A reading experience so impressive, so 'new', so clearly well made that it seems almost to defy the easy aesthetic categories ...Accomplished in rare, spare, precise yet poetic prose' - "New Republic".

　　'His prose, unfailingly beautiful and exact, carries us into a dream world of astonishing and violent revelation. It is a frightening, entrancing world, which we must finally recognize as our own' - Tobias Wolff.

　　'McCarthy is a powerful and talented writer, able to elicit compassion for his protagonist however terrible his action' - "Sunday Times".

作者簡介

戈馬克．麥卡錫Cormac McCarthy（1933.7.20-）

　　一九三三年於美國羅德島出生，原名查爾斯．麥卡錫（Charles McCarthy）。曾獲詹姆斯泰特布萊克紀念文學獎（英國歷史最悠久之文學獎）、美國國家書卷獎、美國國家書評人獎、普立茲文學獎、鵝毛筆獎等眾多獎 項，被譽為是海明威與福克納的唯一後繼者。

　　一九六五年於藍燈書屋出版第一本小說The Orchard Keeper（此書編輯正是與福克納長期合作的Albert Erskine），其後陸續出版Outer Dark、Child of God、Suttree等，皆獲好評。

　　一九八五年出版的《血色子午線》（Blood Meridian）為麥卡錫創作生涯的轉捩點。此書開啟了麥卡錫往後以美國西部為創作背景的一系列作品。一九九二年出版的「邊境三部曲（Border Trilogy）」首卷《所有漂亮的馬》（All the Pretty Horses），獲得大眾讀者的廣泛注意，將麥卡錫推向暢銷作家之林。生性低調的他，也在此時首度接受媒體專訪。二○○六年，《紐約時報》將「邊境三部 曲」列為美國近二十五年來最優秀的小說作品；大受矚目之新作《長路》獲詹姆斯泰特布萊克紀念文學獎、普立茲小說獎、美國鵝毛筆獎，並由數十家 國際媒體及歐 普拉讀書俱樂部選為好書。

　　二○○八年，由《險路》（No Country for Old Men）改編的電影《險路勿近》囊括奧斯卡四項大獎。

　　二○○九年，獲美國筆會頒發索爾貝婁文學終生成就獎。麥卡錫現與妻子Jennifer McCarthy及幼子John Francis McCarthy居於新墨西哥州聖塔菲。

　　Cormac McCarthy is the author of ten acclaimed novels, most recently The Road. Among his honors are the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.