阿蘭·萊特曼（Alan Lightman）

美國理論物理學傢、小說傢，齣生於1948年。身為普林斯頓大學物理學士，加州理工學院物理博士的他，是美國《哈潑市場》、《紐約客》、《紐約書評》等報刊的專欄作者，在他筆下，曼妙文筆、超乎尋常的想象力與精準的科學洞察力，令人匪夷所思地結閤在一起。他的處女作《愛因斯坦的夢》於1993年一問世，便成為全球暢銷書，其對時間的思考富有哲思，令人摺服。他於2000年齣版的小說《診斷》（The Diagnosis）入選美國國傢圖書奬的決選名單。此外，還有散文與寓言選集《時間旅行和老爸喬的煙鬥》（Dance for Two），以及多本闡述科學的書籍。

Alan Lightman’s first novel, Einstein’s Dreams, became an international best seller and was hailed by Salman Rushdie as “at once intellectually provocative and touching and comic and so very beautifully written.” His novel The Diagnosis, called “highly original and imaginative” by the New York Times, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Now comes a stunning and disturbing new novel about a man’s encounter with the unfathomable.

David is a person of modest ambitions who works in a bank, lives in a rooming house, enjoys books and quiet walks by the lake. Three months after unexpectedly being fired from his job, he takes a temporary position at a mortuary. And there, sitting alone in the “slumber room” one afternoon at dusk, he sees something that he cannot comprehend, something that no science can explain, something that will force him to question everything he believes in, including himself. After his metaphysical experience, all his relationships change-—with his estranged wife, his girlfriend, his mother--and he grudgingly finds himself at the center of a bitter public controversy over the existence of the supernatural. As David struggles to understand what has happened to him, we embark on a provocative exploration of the delicate divide between the physical world and the spiritual world, between skepticism and faith, between the natural and the supernatural, and between science and religion.

Combining a dramatic story with compelling characters and provocative ideas, Ghost investigates timeless questions that continue to challenge contemporary society.