In the hopeful 1950s, Frank and April Wheeler appear to be a model couple: bright, beautiful, talented, with two young children and a starter home in the suburbs. Perhaps they married too young and started a family too early. Maybe Frank's job is dull. And April never saw herself as a housewife. Yet they have always lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. But now that certainty is about to crumble.

With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.

理查德·耶茨（Richard Yates,1926年2月3日—1992年11月7日）,美国小说家,被文学史长期不公正对待的大师,被遗忘的最优秀的美国作家。耶茨出生于纽约州扬克斯市,一生落魄不堪,烟鬼兼酒鬼,共著有长篇小说7部,短篇小说集2部。1961年,其极富盛名的处女作《革命之路》（Revolutionary Road）发表,引起轰动,与《第22条军规》、《看电影的人》一同入围美国国家图书奖。其首部短篇小说集《十一种孤独》（Eleven Kinds of Loneliness）于次年出版,被评论界誉为“纽约的《都柏林人》”。他后来接连创作了长篇小说《扰乱和平》（Disturbing the Peace,1975）、《复活节游行》（The Easter Parade,1976）、《好学校》（A Good School,1978）、《年轻的心在哭泣》（Young Hearts Crying,1984）、《冷泉港》（Cold Spring Harbor,1986）等。耶茨有“作家中的作家”之称,艺术风格影响了雷蒙德·卡佛、安德烈·杜波依斯等文学大家。美国很多作家都对耶茨赞誉有加,如著名黑色幽默作家科尔特·冯内古特。