Still Life

　　一位年輕的英國士兵，在這個被戰爭摧殘的小鎮遇到了一名中年女子，從此改變了他的人生。
 
　　1944年，在托斯卡尼一座殘敗的酒窖裡，兩名陌生人在此避難，伴著外頭的砲聲隆隆，他們卻共享了一個驚奇且美妙的半日時光。
　
　　Ulysses Temper是個年僅20出頭的英國士兵，跟著同盟國軍隊行軍至義大利的托斯卡尼，遇到敵軍砲火轟炸，他只好躲進小鎮裡某個廢棄的酒窖中，卻意外在此認識Evelyn Skinner。Evelyn同樣來自英國，是一位教授藝術史的老師，她獨自前來此處，是為了拯救當地的藝術品們，並且希望喚醒自己一些年輕時的回憶。忘年的這段友誼，短短半日，卻交流了很多，尤其是Evelyn對於真善美的一些看法，大大地影響了Ulysses後半輩子，甚至擴及他周遭所愛的人們。
 
　　他們分別前，Evelyn建議Ulysses有生之年應該再訪佛羅倫斯，這個建議他一輩子都沒忘記。當戰爭結束，帶著行軍回憶重返倫敦的Ulysses與妻子重逢，並意外獲得一個女兒Alys。一家子開了一間小酒吧，隨著來往的熟客增加，這些熟客也漸漸地成為Ulysses的家人。而一樁突如其來的產權繼承，讓他再次回到了所有故事最初的起點⋯⋯
　
　　(文／博客來外文館)

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick

A Veranda Magazine Book Club Pick

A captivating, bighearted, richly tapestried story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, by the celebrated author of Tin Man.

Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses’s life for the next four decades.

As Ulysses returns home to London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parot--a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics--he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate, and returns to the Tuscan hills.

With beautiful prose, extraordinary tenderness, and bursts of humor and light, Still Life is a sweeping portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, and a deeply drawn celebration of beauty and love in all its forms.

Sarah Winman is the author of three previous novels, Tin Man, A Year of Marvelous Ways, and When God Was a Rabbit. She grew up in Essex and now lives in London. She attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to act in theatre, film, and television.