BBC推荐：6月必读书单

3. Victoria Redel, Before Everything
《最重要的事》维多利亚•雷德尔

Redel's new novel brings to mind Virginia Woolf's The Waves, with its chorus of distinctive voices sharing private perceptions along with their sustained collective experience. Five girls who dubbed themselves "the old friends" in sixth grade have carried their connection forward through decades, sharing tragedies and triumphs. In March 2013 they gather as Anna, the sparkplug of the group, decides to discontinue her cancer treatment after four remissions. She wants to say her goodbyes. In lyrical prose, Redel interweaves Anna's final days with echoes of the past – the day Helen accompanied a teenaged Anna to her abortion, the day of Ming's daughter Lily's brain surgery, the weddings, the divorces. The endings. "This, Helen thought, this is what Anna will do. She will teach us all how to do this thing we don't know how to do." (Credit: Viking)
雷德尔的新小说《最重要的事》让人想起弗吉尼亚•伍尔芙的《海浪》，它将不同的声音融合在一起，透过大家一直以来的共同经历分享每个人的认知。五个女孩在6年级时就互称“老相识”，她们同甘共苦，友情维持了几十年。2013年3月，她们之中的核心人物安娜在癌症反复四次后决定终止治疗，她希望向所有人道别，五个女孩因此重聚。在这部抒情散文中，雷德尔将安娜最后的时光与昔日的记忆交织在一起，海伦陪伴着年轻的安娜堕胎、明的女儿莉莉接受脑部手术、结婚、离婚，直到走向生命的终结。“海伦想，这就是安娜要做的。她将教会手足无措的我们如何面对死亡。”（来源：维京出版社）