The Echo Maker

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.

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...

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