菲利浦(Philippe)非常富有，然而再多財富都換不回他摯愛的妻子瑪雅(Maja)。懷有身孕的瑪雅在一場空難中死亡，但她腹中的胎兒──他們的女兒安潔莉卡(Angelica)幸運獲救，在失去母親的那一日，降生在這個世界。

　　痛失妻子的菲利浦，自此嚴密保護女兒，甚至到了近乎病態的程度。安潔莉卡宛如被囚禁在城堡中的公主，她也隱隱發覺父親以愛為名、過度親密的碰觸，並不尋常，然而除了書本中的世界，她無處可逃。安潔莉卡閱讀、栽進古老的故事裡，每當菲利浦推開她的房門，她就想像自己脫離了軀體，潛進任何一個想像的國度。

　　直到年輕的達瑞斯到來，他發現了這個家庭的秘密，決定協助安潔莉卡離開。然而這場逃亡卻導向災難性的發展，他們被菲利浦攔阻，達瑞斯更因此身受重傷。

　　小說隨後轉向負傷離開的達瑞斯，他登上一艘名為「鼠海豚號」的船隻，開始了航行，而達瑞斯的故事，也漸漸與傳說中佩里克利斯的故事相疊合。

　　真實與虛幻的界線隨著安潔莉卡屢次遁入書中世界而模糊，她始終不確定，當達瑞斯與菲利浦爆發肢體衝突，並雙雙離開她的視線，他是否隨後被父親殺害了？安潔莉卡在腦海中編織著達瑞斯的旅程與冒險，而她自己的現實人生，也逐漸邁向出口……。

　　結合現代故事情節與古老傳說──故事的原型曾經被一再訴說，以莎士比亞的版本《泰爾親王佩里克利斯》最為知名，佩里克利斯發現安提奧克斯國王對女兒犯下的亂倫罪行，因而被國王派人追殺，他離開家鄉，開始了精彩的旅程。然而被留在原處的、受害的公主，她的人生又發生了什麼事？海登透過現代與遙遠過去、真實與虛幻交錯的架構，訴說了一個富含深度和重量的故事。 (文/博客來編譯)

　　From the Whitbread and Los Angeles Times Prize-winning author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a stunningly ambitious, fantastical novel about the theft of female agency by rapacious men and the ways in which archetypal stories can warp history and the present

　　Mark Haddon's breathtaking novel begins with a harrowing plane crash: Maja, the pregnant wife of the unimaginably wealthy Philippe, is killed, but their daughter Angelica survives. Philippe's obsession with the girl's safety morphs into something sinister and grotesque as she grows into a beautiful teen. A young man named Darius, visiting Philippe with a business proposition, encounters Angelica and intuits their secret -- he decides to rescue her, but the attempt goes awry and he flees England by sea.

　　This contemporary story mirrors the ancient legend of Antiochus, whose love for the daughter of his dead wife was discovered by the adventurer Appolinus of Tyre. The tale appeared in many forms through the ages; Apollinus becoming the swashbuckling Pericles in Shakespeare's eponymous play. In The Porpoise, as Angelique comes to terms with a life imprisoned on her father's estate, Darius morphs into Pericles, voyaging through a mythic world. In a bravura feat of storytelling, Haddon recounts his many exploits in thrilling fashion, mining the meaning of the old legends while creating parallels with the monstrous modern world Angelica inhabits. The language is rich and gorgeous; the conjured worlds are perfectly imagined; the plot moves forward at a ferocious pace.

　　But as much as Haddon plays with myth and meaning, his themes speak deeply to the current moment. As profound as it is entertaining, The Porpoise is a major literary achievement by an author whose myriad talents are on full, vivid display.

　　Review

　　"Staggeringly ambitious, innovative, beautifully written. . .The Porpoise has the pace of a really good thriller, combined with a subtlety and depth that few thrillers possess." --Pat Barker, author of The Silence of the Girls and the Booker Prize-winning The Ghost Road

　　"A full-throttle blast of storytelling mastery. Ancient and modern overlap in exhilarating ways, it's like romping through a literary Netflix: an episode of something historical and bloody, then something slick and contemporary, then something really weird and unnerving. . .The Porpoise is a joy to read.--Max Porter, author of the International Dylan Thomas Prize-winning Grief is the Thing With Feathers

　　"Mark Haddon cuts down to the grittiness of humanity every time he writes. The Porpoise is a beautiful, unputdownable, ancient tangle with its own sweeping tides and dangerous depths." --Daisy Johnson, author of the Booker Prize finalist Everything Under

　　"An artfully crafted story of layered lives. . .Haddon’s ambitious tale captures the ethos of tragic Shakespearean vibrations and the tangle of lives that magically intersect. The prose is exquisite and elevates this story that blends reality and mythology to great effect."--Publishers Weekly