Is it true, as the novelist Cees Nooteboom once wrote, that 'Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases'? Where do the long, lazy summers of our childhood go? Why is it that as we grow older time seems to condense, speed up, elude us, while in old age significant events from our distant past can seem as vivid and real as what happened yesterday? In this enchanting and thoughtful book, Douwe Draaisma, author of the internationally acclaimed Metaphors of Memory, explores the nature of autobiographical memory. Applying a unique blend of scholarship, poetic sensibility and keen observation he tackles such extraordinary phenomena as dej...-vu, near-death experiences, the memory feats of idiot-savants and the effects of extreme trauma on memory recall. Raising almost as many questions as it answers, this fascinating book will not fail to touch you at the same time as it educates and entertains.

杜威·德拉埃斯马（Douwe Draaisma），1953年生于荷兰，专攻人类记忆本质和运作方式的研究。1999年因记忆研究上的成就，荣获海曼斯奖（The Heymans Prize）。现任荷兰格罗宁根皇家大学（University of Groningen）心理系教授。主要著作 有《记忆的隐喻》等，皆被译成十多国语言。

张朝霞，湖南常德人，湖南师范大学英语语言文学学士、英国伯明翰大学MBA。在IT、政府、金融、管理、咨询服务、教育等跨行业、跨专业领域有逾20年从业经验，业余从事翻译工作近20年，出版英语专著3部，译著12部，最新译著为美国著名世界宗教学权威休斯顿·史密斯（Huston Smith）的《欢心喜乐每一天》（And Live Rejoicing）。