National Book Award for Fiction Best Novel winner (2006) : The Echo Maker

理查德·鲍威尔斯1957年出生于伊利诺伊州的埃文斯顿，成长在芝加哥北部的林肯伍德，父亲是个中学校长。11岁时，鲍威尔斯随父亲前往泰国曼谷，并在那里念完了初中。在东西文化的冲撞与交融中，年幼的鲍威尔斯感受到美学的神圣魅力。文学和音乐成了他的挚爱。鲍威尔斯对长、短篇小说和非小说都有浓厚的兴趣，也曾学习大提琴、吉他、单簧管和萨克斯管等多种乐器的演奏。不过，在20世纪60年代美苏争霸太空形势的影响下，鲍威尔斯从小便立志成为一名科学家。1975年鲍威尔斯考入伊利诺伊州大学，主修物理学。在大学的一次研讨会上，弗洛伊德评论家罗伯特·施奈德指出：“文学才是俯瞰空中全景的佳境。”为此，鲍威尔斯毅然改学修辞学。鲍威尔斯深为普鲁斯特、卡夫卡、托马斯·曼和詹姆士·乔伊斯等欧洲现代派作家在小说叙事上的大胆实验所吸引，也着迷于托马斯·品钦、威廉·加迪斯、威廉·加斯和约翰·巴斯等美国后现代派作家的小说。这为日后的文学创作打下了坚实的基础。有趣的是，1980年鲍威尔斯放弃攻读文学博士的机会，前往波士顿当了一名计算机程序设计员。工作之余，他博览群书，广泛涉猎了考古学、海洋学、历史、社会学、政治学、美学、小说和诗歌。每逢周末，他都去参观附近的美术馆。一次偶然的机会，鲍威尔斯看到德国摄影大师奥古斯特·桑德1914年的作品《年轻的农民》，照片上3个年轻人的神情和装束格外引人注目。鲍威尔斯回忆道，“此前多年的阅读体验在那一刻凝住并汇聚起来”。两天后，鲍威尔斯便辞了职，专心投入到了文学创作当中。

On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, twenty-seven-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near fatal accident. His older sister, Karin, his only close kin, returns reluctantly to their hometown to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury. But when he emerges from a protracted coma, Mark believes that this woman - who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister - is really an identical impostor. Shattered by her brother's refusal to recognize her, Karin contacts the cognitive neurologist Gerald Weber, famous for his case histories describing the infinitely bizarre worlds of brain disorder. Weber recognizes Mark as a rare case of Capgras syndrome, a doubling delusion, and eagerly investigates. What he discovers in Mark slowly undermines even his own sense of being. Meanwhile, Mark, armed only with a note left by an anonymous witness, attempts to learn what happened the night of his inexplicable accident. The truth of that evening will change the lives of all three beyond recognition. Set against the Platte River's massive spring migrations - one of the greatest spectacles in nature - "The Echo Maker" is a gripping mystery that explores the improvised human self and the even more precarious brain that splits us from and joins us to the rest of creation.