諾曼·梅勒(Norman Mailer)，美國最具爭議的猶太裔作傢。1923年齣生於美國新澤西州。1939進入哈佛大學學習航空工程，但卻對文學創作産生興趣，大學二年級就發錶瞭第一篇短篇小說《世界上最偉大的事》。1944年至1946年在太平洋地區服役。1948在巴黎寫齣瞭成名作《裸者與死者》。1955年與人閤作創辦瞭主要在紐約發行的報紙《村聲》。1969年競選紐約市長失利。《夜幕下的大軍》（1968年）獲普利策奬和美國國傢圖書奬。《劊子手之歌》（1979年）再獲普利策奬。2005年獲得美國國傢圖書基金會的美國文學傑齣貢獻奬。2007年1月齣版瞭其最後一部小說《林中城堡》。2007年11月10日去世。美國著名作傢瓊·迪迪恩在得知諾曼去世之後贊揚諾曼是“美國偉大的良心”，法國總統薩科齊則錶示這是“美國文學巨人的隕落”。

梅勒是當代美國文壇的一位風格獨特的作傢，寫作風格多變，不少作品剖析瞭美國社會中的病態現象，在文體上也敢於作大膽的探索。作品中主要人物多為一些硬漢式人物，有很強的自我意識。梅勒也被美國文學界稱為“海明威第二”。

No career in modern American letters is at once so brilliant, varied, and controversial as that of Norman Mailer. In a span of more than six decades, Mailer has searched into subjects ranging from World War II to Ancient Egypt, from the march on the Pentagon to Marilyn Monroe, from Henry Miller and Mohammad Ali to Jesus Christ. Now, in The Castle in the Forest, his first major work of fiction in more than a decade, Mailer offers what may be his consummate literary endeavor: He has set out to explore the evil of Adolf Hitler.

The narrator, a mysterious SS man who is later revealed to be an exceptional presence, gives us young Adolf from birth, as well as Hitler’s father and mother, his sisters and brothers, and the intimate details of his childhood and adolescence.

A tapestry of unforgettable characters, The Castle in the Forest delivers its playful twists and surprises with astonishing insight into the nature of the struggle between good and evil that exists in us all. At its core is a hypothesis that propels this novel and makes it a work of stunning originality. Now, on the eve of his eighty-fourth birthday, Norman Mailer may well be saying more than he ever has before.

From the Hardcover edition.