老吳在從軍30多年退休後，長久渴望成立的家竟是一個妻子與孩子皆違背倫常的家庭，幸好六個孩子之中的老四吳但理因著奇妙的際遇走出苦毒仇恨的陰影，並靠者一股神奇的力量原諒了造成悲劇、同時也受害的父母，而老吳這個不折不扣的悲劇英雄，也因著這股延伸的際遇和愛而脫胎換骨，至終成為一位逆轉厄運的使者。

我不能浪費上帝給我的天賦，所以我用英文寫作。雖然我的英文程度絕不是最好的，同時也不清楚我的文學素養到底算老幾，但意識到能用英文寫出令我感動的故事，並將故事與讀者分享。用中文寫作當然也可以，但在面對用英文或中文寫作這兩條看似雷同、其實截然不同的路時，我選擇了說華語長大的人較少走的一條路。上帝讓我知道可以用英文寫作去和讀英文的讀者分享書中的內容，所以我就寫了這本英文小說。
身為台灣人，我感到幸福與滿足，但是對台灣的愛使我渴望把台灣的存在擴張到世界的其他地方，從上帝那兒得到的愛，更令我無法不訴說這奇妙的愛，這樣簡單的心志與願望，究竟能不能實現，還有待時間的考驗和上帝的眷顧了。
這本書能成形要特別感謝台灣大學王文興老師和政治大學羅狼仁老師的文學啟蒙，中和高中吳璧妃老師及台灣大學賴曉嵐助教閱讀草稿後的建議，還有同事如林美玉老師和陳薇竹老師等的支持與鼓勵，更重要的，感謝內人妍妏及孩子保惠和家揚的愛，他們是我在教學之餘全心寫作重要的精神支柱，最重要的，這本書要是能得到重視，都要歸功於愛我的主。

Foreword
To love writing is to love possibilities. I love possibilities. Most of all, I love to explore possibilities to make life itself larger-than-life. In a world full of lies and conspiracy theories, truth seems but a shadow. If you look at something and say you’ve found truth, you probably haven’t. According to some, truth never exists here and now or existed in the past, nor at a certain point in the future. They say we can only choose to believe something to feel better. Nevertheless, there is still one way to know truth and that is to know God, the only being that transcends time, space and all knowledge there is. Since God is immeasurable, I can only try to know Him, thus to get at truth, by exploring possibilities, hence the reason I love writing. The more I write, the closer I am to truth.
The story I tell in the following pages is both alarming and ordinary, fictional and factual. The father and the son are in a family that seems to be condemned for immorality involved that hurts both the father and the son, and his siblings. The son has every reason to curse his fate and to blame others and especially his parents for giving him such a hell of a family. He is wise enough choosing to work hard instead. His challenging fate and working his way up the social ladder, however, do not give him the thing he needs most to relieve his angst, so his quest continues until the turning point comes.
It’s harder to get this work of mine published than to write it for me, although both are difficult for a Taiwanese who has never been to English-speaking countries. My teachers Professor Wang Wen-shing of National Taiwan University and Dr. Brian David Phillips of National Cheng Chi University, inspired me and kindled my interest in appreciating and writing stories in English, to whom I owe my heartfelt thanks, now and forever. I am also grateful for the love and support of my family and colleagues, who empowered me a lot when I was drafting and rewriting the novel. Above all, glory to God, who always loves me and gives me so much in life.

We simply weren’t convinced that to bless us was the real reason he asked each of us six to show up at his house, taking a day off in the middle of the week, let alone he was going to die that day. In fact, I was wondering whether my father had acquired senior dementia or was seeing things. Judging from the looks exchanged among my siblings, I knew the other three brothers and two sisters of mine had shared similar ideas. We looked at our old man not knowing what to do, or what to say. That is, except exchanging looks. Again it was he who said something, this time to me, "Daniel, thank you for accompanying me for the last fifteen years. You have been good to me. You’ll be blessed, abundantly blessed for your kindness." It was the first time those words came out of his mouth and I was so touched that my eyes were moistened with tears.
節錄自〈Part I：The Father〉

鄒文仁（Nick Tsou）西元1969年生於台灣彰化，畢業於台大外文系及政大英教所，從未在35歲以前有過文學創作的渴望，突然於2005年開始不斷湧現創作的能量，以中文創作了「福爾摩沙語言文化狂想記」（短篇小說）、「過客之歌」（現代詩）和「東莞朝聖記」（短篇小說），發表於他的部落格blog.udn.com/nicktsou2005；隨後於2007年改以英文創作了「父與子」（The Father and the Son），本書為他的英文小說處女作，也是他試圖爲台灣文學創作開創新路之舉。平時閱讀英文小說是他的嗜好，教學的工作使他樂在其中，信仰和家人是他最重要的精神寄託，而寫作則是他註解生命的方式。
The author of The Father and the Son is Nick Tsou, a Taiwanese high school English teacher. Born in 1969 and having secured his BA in English and MA in TESOL, both from prestigious local universities, only started to write in 2005 after a sudden spring of creative power welled up from within him, which suggested to him that writing would be his gift from God and where he would dedicate his best effort. Having afterward written a coulple of stories and scores of poems in Chinese, he chose to write this first novel of his in English in 2007 at the age of 38 as he realized writing in English aroused more passion for him than any other things he’d ever done. Therefore, he made the most of the time he had in addition to being a teacher, a father, a husband and a deacon in church and wrote for six months until he finished his first novel, The Father and the Son. Tsou has been married 12 years and is now living with his wife, Jasmine, and their two children, Amy and John, in Taipei, Taiwan.