This brightly polished yet immensely touching comedy presents the romantic quest of Kitty Maule, who, in revenge against the impossibly charming and elusive man who rejects her, resolves to become "totally unreasonable, totally unfair, very demanding, and very beautiful," to any number of others.

Kitty Maule longs to be "totally unreasonable, totally unfair, very demanding, and very beautiful." She is instead clever, reticent, self-possessed, and striking. For years. Kitty has been tactfully courting her colleague Maurice Bishop, a detached, elegant English professor. Now, running out of patience, Kitty's amorous pursuit takes her from rancorous academic committee rooms...(展开全部)

安妮塔•布鲁克纳 1928年生，英国当代著名作家、卓有成就的艺术史学者。她是第一个获得剑桥大学斯莱德教授席的女性。1981年发表第一部长篇小说，1984年凭借小说《湖畔酒店》获布克奖。布鲁克纳文笔优美，是广受赞誉的文体家。小说多反映现代社会孤独的中产知识女性的情感经验与 困境，体察入微，并掺入丰富文学经典与艺术史细节，学院风浓厚，深具智性色彩。《天意》是她的代表作之一。 锡兵 数学系教授，精通多门外语，超级书蠹，博雅之士，曾译有翻译难度很高的历史小说《极地征伐》。全本书店编辑周丽华表示全书她没有挑出一处翻译错误，该译本的精确度与流畅度可以挑战乔纳森老师的密切关注。

理查德·耶茨（Richards Yates，1926—1992）是“焦虑时代的伟大作家”。作为二十世纪中叶的美国主流生活的忠实记录者，批评家们将他与契诃夫、菲茨杰拉德、约翰·契弗相提并论。他的处女作长篇小说《革命之路》甫一推出即获成功，获得美国国家图书奖提名。1962年他的第一部短篇小说集《十一种孤独》出版，更被誉为“纽约的《都柏林人》”。耶茨的作品曾获《纽约时报书评》、《君子》、《华盛顿邮报》等媒体的好评，并有四本小说入选“每月一书俱乐部”。此外他还拥有一大批作家拥趸，其中不乏著名作家，如库尔特·冯古内特、安德烈·杜波依斯，他的作品也影响了许多作家，如雷蒙德·卡佛，他被誉为“作家中的作家”。

Robert Prentice has spent all his life attempting to escape his mother's stifling presence. His mother, Alice, for her part, struggles with her own demons as she attempts to realize her dreams of prosperity and success as a sculptor. As Robert goes off to fight in Europe, hoping to become his own man, Richard Yates portrays a soldier in the depths of war striving to live up to ...(展开全部)

Robert Prentice is eighteen, and his boyhood dreams have disintegrated on the battlefields of Europe. At home, his mother, Alice, wraps herself in fantasy against the relentless disappointments of life. From his compelling portraits of these two damaged souls, Richard Yates creates a brilliant novel of post-war America, at odds with its own identity, striving to combine prosper...(展开全部)

Empire Falls, Maine: once a thriving hub of industry, this small town nestles in a bend of the vast and winding Knox River, and has always been the empire of the wealthy Whiting family. Now the last Mrs Whiting presides like a black widow spider over its declining fortunes. She harbours a grudge against her employee Miles Groby, who runs the Whiting-owned Empire Grill, but hope...(展开全部)

With Empire Falls Richard Russo cements his reputation as one of America’s most compelling and compassionate storytellers. Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the...(展开全部)

A student has gone missing in Edinburgh. She's not just any student, though, but the daughter of well-to-do and influential bankers. There's almost nothing to go on until DI John Rebus gets an unmistakable gut feeling that there's more to this than just another runaway spaced out on unaccustomed freedom. Two leads emerge: a carved wooden doll in a toy coffin, found in the stude...(展开全部)

With Empire Falls Richard Russo cements his reputation as one of America’s most compelling and compassionate storytellers. Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the...(展开全部)