剋利斯·波傑裏安（Chris Bohjalian）1960年生於紐約，1982年畢業於阿默斯特學院，是《柯夢波丹》、《讀者文摘》、《波士頓周日環球雜誌》等多傢期刊的撰稿人，並闢有個人專欄。他是美國最受歡迎的小說傢之一，其作品傾嚮於圍繞普通老百姓麵對在不可預見的情況下産生的極其睏難的狀況，往往側重於一個具體問題，如無傢可歸，動物權利和環境保護，並往往以性格為導嚮，圍繞復雜且有缺陷的主角和次要人物循環。他的很多小說故事都發生在真實的佛濛特州的一些虛構的城鎮，以至於讓眾多讀者誤認為確有其地。

剋利斯?波傑裏安迄今已發錶小說13部，包括曾入選《齣版人周刊》“最佳好書”、“奧普拉讀書俱樂部”選書的《紐約時報》暢銷作品《助産士》。此外，他也有多本著作登上《紐約時報》暢銷書榜。《野牛戰士》2002年獲頒“新英格蘭最佳小說奬”。《舊金山紀事報》描述他的作品為：“平凡人物在心痛時刻所錶現齣來的優雅與尊嚴”。他的作品被翻譯成26種語言，銷售近500萬冊，其中3部作品曾被改編成電影。他和妻女現居佛濛特州。

Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With Midwives , he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In The Buffalo Soldier , he introduced us to one of contemporary literature’s most beloved foster children. And in Before You Know Kindness , he plumbed animal rights, gun control, and what it means to be a parent.

Chris Bohjalian’s riveting fiction keeps us awake deep into the night. As The New York Times has said, “Few writers can manipulate a plot with Bohjalian’s grace and power.” Now he is back with an ambitious new novel that travels between Jay Gatsby’s Long Island and rural New England, between the Roaring Twenties and the twenty-first century.

When college sophomore Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bicycle through Vermont’s back roads, her life is forever changed. Formerly outgoing, Laurel withdraws into her photography and begins to work at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of photographs that he won’t let anyone see. When Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel discovers that he was telling the truth: before he was homeless, Bobbie Crocker was a successful photographer who had indeed worked with such legends as Chuck Berry, Robert Frost, and Eartha Kitt.

As Laurel’s fascination with Bobbie’s former life begins to merge into obsession, she becomes convinced that some of his photographs reveal a deeply hidden, dark family secret. Her search for the truth will lead her further from her old life—and into a cat-and-mouse game with pursuers who claim they want to save her.

In this spellbinding literary thriller, rich with complex and compelling characters—including Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan—Chris Bohjalian takes readers on his most intriguing, most haunting, and most unforgettable journey yet.

From the Hardcover edition.