The Virgin Suicides

　　十三歲的少女西西莉雅自殺了----

　　沒有人知道為什麼。其後一年之內，她四個漂亮的姊姊也相繼向世間告別。一直以來，鄰居男孩只能遠遠觀察她們，在迷戀窺看的目光中．五個姊妹美麗、古怪；死亡事件令一向安寧的底特律小鎮住宅區騷動不安，男孩們震驚、迷惘，他們努力從彼此口中、從左鄰右舍眼中，從學校老師、同學、甚至精神科醫師等生活在姊妹周遭人們的記憶，還有，他們費盡心力找來，西西莉雅生前的一本日記中，去拼湊里斯本家致命的憂鬱謎團。

　　《少女死亡日記》是一部當代經典，一個關於青春愛戀、不安與死亡的故事，關於性與自殺的抒情傳說。傑佛瑞．尤金尼德斯以敏銳的感性和黑色幽默，喚起青春年華的情愫，並增添神話般的色彩。一本令人癡迷難忘的小說，導演蘇菲亞．柯波拉曾改編同名電影，讓本書影響力更深遠觸及跨世代的青春心靈。

　　三十年寫作生涯，傑佛瑞．尤金尼德斯只出版三部長篇小說，部部蔚為經典；尤以捕捉青少年荷爾蒙強烈的虛無輕狂，甚至是傲嬌，無人能出其右，奠定他在當代美國文學難以撼動的大師地位。

　　First published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters--beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys--commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family's fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-of-age story unlike any of our time. Adapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola, The Virgin Suicides is a modern classic, a lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life.

　　★本書中譯版《少女死亡日記》由時報出版。

作者簡介

傑佛瑞．尤金尼德斯（Jeffrey Eugenides）

　　生於美國的底特律。就讀布朗大學及史丹佛大學。《少女死亡日記》於一九九三年出版，一九九九年由蘇菲亞．柯波拉改拍成電影《死亡日記》。於二○○三年以《中性》一書獲得普立茲小說獎，該書亦進入美國國家書評獎（National Book Critics Award）、IMPAC都柏林文學獎及法國的梅第西獎（Prix Medicis）決選名單。他於二○○七年秋進入普林斯頓大學任教。

　　JEFFREY EUGENIDES was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford universities. The Virgin Suicides was published in 1993 and was adapted into a motion picture in 1999 by Sophia Coppola. His second novel, Middlesex, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. He joined the faculty of Princeton University in the fall of 2007.