本书是深受加西亚·马尔克斯推崇的加泰罗尼亚语小说家梅尔塞•罗多雷达的短篇小说精选集，包含三十个短篇，涵盖了作者的全部表达：从文学 现实主义到碎片化的印象主义再到黑暗的象征主义，清晰地捕捉到夹在无意识的现代化和令人窒息的传统之间的女性的生活和内心世界。同时，作者在想象与现实中穿插，细腻地描述了战争中人们惶惑的内心和流离失所的生活。本书收入加西亚·马尔克斯推荐文章《梅尔塞·罗多雷达何许人也》。

From the internationally celebrated author of Brooklyn and The Master , and winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, comes a stunning new book of fiction. In the captivating stories that make up The Empty Family , Colm Tóibín delineates with a tender and unique sensibility, lives of unspoken or unconscious longing, of individuals often willingly cast adrift from their history. From the young Pakistani immigrant who seeks some kind of permanence in a strange town, to the Irish woman reluctantly returning to Dublin and discovering a city that refuses to acknowledge her long absence, each of Tóibín's stories manage to contain whole worlds: stories of fleeing the past and returning home, of family threads lost and ultimately regained. Like Tóibín's celebrated novels, and his previous short story collection, Mothers and Sons , reviewed on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, The Empty Family will further confirm Tóibín's status as "his generation's most gifted writer of love's complicated, contradictory power." ( Los Angeles Times )

This collection of playful, deadly fables is populated with waifs and strays, a gluttonous thief and a mischievous gardener. The grimly comic story "The Argentine Ant" moved Gore Vidal to declare 'if this is not a masterpiece of twentieth-century prose writing, I cannot think of anything better'.

短篇小说集《突然，响起一阵敲门声》古怪有趣，带着同情的腔调，故事的结尾永远出乎意料。叙述随意不做作，如同闲谈，却有诗意。这些故事将直抵你内心深处，让你久久难忘。 —————— 以色列当代最好的短篇小说家 埃特加•凯雷特 阿摩司•奥兹、萨尔曼•拉什迪、扬•马特尔、乔纳森•萨福兰•弗尔推荐 —————— 埃特加•凯雷特的短篇小说凶猛、有趣，充满能量和洞见，同时常常深刻、悲剧而又非常感人。 ——阿摩司•奥兹 一个睿智的作家……和我认识的任何作家都不一样。下一代人的声音。 ——萨尔曼•拉什迪 这些故事短小、陌生、有趣，但语调却显得随意。这些故事像笑话却不是笑话。埃特加•凯雷特是个应当严肃对待的作家。 ——扬•马特尔 埃特加•凯雷特已经写了几本好书，但这是他最好的一本。这些故事，是我很长一段时间以来读到的最有趣、黑暗和悲伤的故事。可以说这本书非常卡夫卡，但其实应该说非常凯雷特。 ——乔纳森•萨福兰•弗尔

《与绝迹之鸟的短暂邂逅》是《漫长的中场休息》作者本·方登潜心创作18年的短篇小说集，描绘了八个绚丽而荒诞的迷你短剧，八篇21世纪的异国冒险故事。 苦苦等待丈夫从战场归来的妻子，得知丈夫成了信伏都教的异教徒。 醉心稀有鹦鹉的鸟类学家，只能眼睁睁看着叛军以它们的栖息地和木业大亨换取子弹。 为了救助当地的妇女，申请不到资金的负责人只能去走私沾着她们鲜血的“血钻”。 鸟类学家、国际义工、平民，高尔夫球员……八个身份各异的人，怀揣着不同的梦想来到异国他乡，却纷纷身陷困境，不得解脱。八个荒谬的迷你剧，从海地、缅甸到塞拉利昂，在时代的巨变之中，满怀善意、心怀希望的人们，终究被卷入他们无力抵抗的风暴中。这些故事犹如一道光，照亮对与错之间那道分界线，照亮深陷困境不得解脱的角色，不论他们为善还是为恶。

Tales of love and loneliness in which the author blends reality and illusion. "The quirkiness and grace of the writing, the originality of the imagination at work, ...and a certain lovable nuttiness make this collection well worth reading" (Margaret Atwood). Translated by William Weaver, Peggy Wright, and Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book