凱斯•唐納鬍（Keith Donohue）

齣生於一個愛爾蘭裔的美國傢庭，在七個孩子中排行第四，從小就覺得自己可能是個換生靈。他的第一份工作是在美國藝術基金會擔任講稿撰寫人，在長達八年的工作中，利用課餘時間獲得文學博士學位。

一九七四年立誌以寫作為業，並花瞭七年時間寫下處女作《失竊的孩子》。此書尚未齣版即受關注，美國亞馬遜網上書店更是秘密買下電影版權，作為進軍好萊塢的第一炮。隨後，《失竊的孩子》不僅名列各大暢銷書排行榜，更獲得二〇〇六年《軌跡》雜誌最佳新人作品奬，並入圍鵝毛大奬，是亞馬遜網上書店文學小說榜和奇幻科幻榜雙料冠軍。

《毀滅天使》是唐納鬍的第二本小說。齣版後廣受好評，並榮獲《華盛頓郵報》2009年十大好書。

Keith Donohue’s first novel, The Stolen Child , was a national bestseller hailed as “captivating” (USA Today), “luminous and thrilling” (Washington Post), and “wonderful...So spare and unsentimental that it’s impossible not to be moved (Newsweek. His new novel, Angels of Destruction , opens on a winter’s night, when a young girl appears at the home of Mrs. Margaret Quinn, a widow who lives alone. A decade earlier, she had lost her only child, Erica, who fled with her high school sweetheart to join a radical student group known as the Angels of Destruction. Before Margaret answers the knock in the dark hours, she whispers a prayer and then makes her visitor welcome at the door.

The girl, who claims to be nine years old and an orphan with no place to go, beguiles Margaret, offering some solace, some compensation, for the woman’s loss. Together, they hatch a plan to pass her off as her newly found granddaughter, Norah Quinn, and enlist Sean Fallon, a classmate and heartbroken boy, to guide her into the school and town.

Their conspiracy is vulnerable not only to those children and neighbors intrigued by Norah’s mysterious and magical qualities but by a lone figure shadowing the girl who threatens to reveal the child’s true identity and her purpose in Margaret’s life. Who are these strangers really? And what is their connection to the past, the Angels, and the long-missing daughter?

Angels of Destruction is an unforgettable story of hope and fear, heartache and redemption. The saga of the Quinn family unfolds against an America wracked by change. As it delicately dances on the line between the real and the imagined, this mesmerizing new novel confirms Keith Donohue’s standing as one of our most inspiring and inventive novelists.

From the Hardcover edition.