【書語】Once Upon a River

作者：Diane Setterfield。

很有趣的一本小說，場景是泰晤士河畔小鎮，民間傳說人物 Quietly 與一個深夜被尋獲的小女孩串起了故事的發展。情節緊湊、懸疑，卻不讓人擔心害怕。

Quietly 是泰晤河上的擺渡人，無影無蹤，只有在有人遇難時才會出現。若遇難者天命未盡，Quietly 出手拯救；但若期限已到，Quietly 則擺渡遇難者至另一方。小女孩是走失落水被救起，原已無生命卻又活了過來。三個家庭出面爭奪此小女孩，究竟孩子是誰的，牽動了閱讀者的心。

除了劇情鋪陳外，作者對於文字運用令人稱奇，細膩的場景描述，不只描繪出空間視覺上的配置，甚至讓閱讀者感受到當時的溫度、濕度、聲音與氛圍。例如描述 

Swan 酒館外的泰晤士河窗景

『In daylight this window showed you Radcot Bridge and the river flowing through its three serene arches. By night (and this story begins at night) the bridge was drowned black, and it was only when your ears noticed the low and borderless sound of great quantities of moving water that you could make out the stretch of liquid blackness that flowed outside the window, shifting and undulating, darkly illuminated by some energy of its own making.』

Rita 護士走向泰晤士河場景

『The cold air sidled through her buttonholes and the stitches of her muffler. She walked through the warm steam of her own exhalation, felt it lay itself as wetness on her face.』

泰晤士河氾濫進入 Lily 房子場景

『In the weak light, her first impression was that everything had shrunk. The table was shorter than it ought to be and the sink was nearer the floor. The chair was stunted. Then she caught a movement: the tin bath rocked gently, like a cradle. The dull terracotta floor tiles had disappeared and over them lay a broad flatness that shifted and shimmered like a thing making up its mind.

Though she could not see it grow, it was growing: at first it was inches from the bottom rung of the ladder, then it reached it, and then it swallowed it altogether. It crept slowly but persistently up the walls and pressed against the door.』