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In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives.

On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations.

So begins this rare, original story about the abiding strength that imagination, once ignited, can provide. As artillery echoes in the mountains, thirteen-year-old Matilda and her peers are riveted by the adventures of a young orphan named Pip in a city called London, a city whose contours soon become more real than their own blighted landscape. As Mr. Watts says, “A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe.” Soon come the rest of the villagers, initially threatened, finally inspired to share tales of their own that bring alive the rich mythology of their past. But in a ravaged place where even children are forced to live by their wits and daily survival is the only objective, imagination can be a dangerous thing.

2007年布克獎最後決選(shortlist)作品！同時也獲得 2007 年英聯邦作家獎，評審給予極高的評價：「這是一個迷人的故事，說明書籍可以用極為驚人的方式改變我們的生活。」「非常鮮明的人物個性、迷人的文學指涉架構」。

「一個為書著迷的人，會忘了呼吸…。」故事背景發生於一個戰爭時期的太平洋小島，在一個幾乎被戰爭摧毀的小島上，外號叫「突眼」的老師，是小村中唯一的白人老師，他的外表受到了人們的好奇和嘲笑，但是他堅持為村落的小孩們付出，不僅協助重建校園、也為物質生活極為貧乏的孩子帶來生活中的其它希望，他帶領孩子們閱讀Charles Dickens 狄更斯的《Great Expectations 孤星血淚》，以文學帶領孩子們跳離生活、學習忍耐和堅強。後來在戰亂損毀了這本書，他就開始鼓勵孩子們回憶故事情節，複述所記得的書籍內容…，甚至到後來也讓村民們主動加入，開始分享自己的故事。

《The Stolen Child 失竊的孩子》作者讚譽：「…簡直不可思議。這是一個關於故事的故事，描述故事超越了想像的界線，並駐留在人們內心的巨大力量。Lloyd Jones是個大膽而尖銳的作家，他給了我們一個全新的狄更斯。」

對於英國文學界年度最高榮譽的布克獎(Man Booker Prize for Fiction)來說，入圍決選名單就已經是最大的肯定，這六本小說已經確定是當年度的風雲出版品。作者出生於紐西蘭，在之前並不具有很高的知名度，但這次作品能與 Ian McEwan伊恩．麥克伊旺 等眾大師共同競逐最高榮譽，甚至被譽為最能威脅 Ian McEwan 獲獎機會的作品，已經奠定了他的文壇地位。

• YLDickensGreat ExpectationsNew Zealand authorsR-SI Will Kill Again