《The Castle in the Forest》

No career in modern American letters is at once so brilliant, varied, and controversial as that of Norman Mailer. In a span of more than six decades, Mailer has searched into subjects ranging from World War II to Ancient Egypt, from the march on the Pentagon to Marilyn Monroe, from Henry Miller and Mohammad Ali to Jesus Christ. Now, in The Castle in the Forest, his first major work of fiction in more than a decade, Mailer offers what may be his consummate literary endeavor: He has set out to explore the evil of Adolf Hitler.

The narrator, a mysterious SS man who is later revealed to be an exceptional presence, gives us young Adolf from birth, as well as Hitler’s father and mother, his sisters and brothers, and the intimate details of his childhood and adolescence.

A tapestry of unforgettable characters, The Castle in the Forest delivers its playful twists and surprises with astonishing insight into the nature of the struggle between good and evil that exists in us all. At its core is a hypothesis that propels this novel and makes it a work of stunning originality. Now, on the eve of his eighty-fourth birthday, Norman Mailer may well be saying more than he ever has before.

From the Hardcover edition.

诺曼·梅勒(Norman Mailer)，美国最具争议的犹太裔作家。1923年出生于美国新泽西州。1939进入哈佛大学学习航空工程，但却对文学创作产生兴趣，大学二年级就发表了第一篇短篇小说《世界上最伟大的事》。1944年至1946年在太平洋地区服役。1948在巴黎写出了成名作《裸者与死者》。1955年与人合作创办了主要在纽约发行的报纸《村声》。1969年竞选纽约市长失利。《夜幕下的大军》（1968年）获普利策奖和美国国家图书奖。《刽子手之歌》（1979年）再获普利策奖。2005年获得美国国家图书基金会的美国文学杰出贡献奖。2007年1月出版了其最后一部小说《林中城堡》。2007年11月10日去世。美国著名作家琼·迪迪恩在得知诺曼去世之后赞扬诺曼是“美国伟大的良心”，法国总统萨科齐则表示这是“美国文学巨人的陨落”。

梅勒是当代美国文坛的一位风格独特的作家，写作风格多变，不少作品剖析了美国社会中的病态现象，在文体上也敢于作大胆的探索。作品中主要人物多为一些硬汉式人物，有很强的自我意识。梅勒也被美国文学界称为“海明威第二”。