BBC推薦：6月必讀書單

3. Victoria Redel, Before Everything
《最重要的事》維多利亞?雷德爾

Redel's new novel brings to mind Virginia Woolf's The Waves, with its chorus of distinctive voices sharing private perceptions along with their sustained collective experience. Five girls who dubbed themselves "the old friends" in sixth grade have carried their connection forward through decades, sharing tragedies and triumphs. In March 2013 they gather as Anna, the sparkplug of the group, decides to discontinue her cancer treatment after four remissions. She wants to say her goodbyes. In lyrical prose, Redel interweaves Anna's final days with echoes of the past – the day Helen accompanied a teenaged Anna to her abortion, the day of Ming's daughter Lily's brain surgery, the weddings, the divorces. The endings. "This, Helen thought, this is what Anna will do. She will teach us all how to do this thing we don't know how to do." (Credit: Viking)
雷德爾的新小說《最重要的事》讓人想起弗吉尼亞?伍爾芙的《海浪》，它將不同的聲音融合在一起，透過大家一直以來的共同經歷分享每個人的認知。五個女孩在6年級時就互稱“老相識”，她們同甘共苦，友情維持了幾十年。2013年3月，她們之中的核心人物安娜在癌癥反復四次后決定終止治療，她希望向所有人道別，五個女孩因此重聚。在這部抒情散文中，雷德爾將安娜最后的時光與昔日的記憶交織在一起，海倫陪伴著年輕的安娜墮胎、明的女兒莉莉接受腦部手術、結婚、離婚，直到走向生命的終結。“海倫想，這就是安娜要做的。她將教會手足無措的我們如何面對死亡。”（來源：維京出版社）