Felicia's Journey

*WINNER OF THE WHITBREAD BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD* 
 
*WINNER OF THE SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD * 
 
From acclaimed author William Trevor, Felicia's Journey is a tightly woven psychological thriller 
 
'A book so brilliant that it compels you to stay up all night galloping through to the end' Daily Mail 
 
You're beautiful, Johnny told her. 
 
So, full of hope, seventeen-year-old Felicia crosses the Irish Sea to England to find her lover and tell him she is pregnant. Desperately searching for Johnny in the bleak post-industrial Midlands, she is instead found by Mr Hilditch, a strange and lonely man, a collector and befriender of homeless young girls . . . 
 
'Immensely readable. The plot twist is both sinister and affecting, and so skilfully done that you remember why authors had plot twists in the first place' Guardian 
 
Readers of The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer will adore Felicia's Journey. It will also be cherished by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written eighteen novels and novellas, and hundreds of short stories, for which he has won a number of prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. In 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature.

A book so brilliant that it compels you to stay up all night galloping through to the end

Immensely readable.  The plot twist is both sinister and affecting, and so skillfully done that you remember why authors had plot twists in the first place

Immaculately calculated.  Trevor's cunning is to lull us with inertia so that we are as startled as his characters when the faint air of menace turns into a tempest

Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling.  this sinister, elegant, piercingly sad novel is surely one of the books of the year

A masterpiece.  You read and are dazzled.  It has one of the most memorable and convincing, most sinister and terrifying of characters created in the modern novel

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written many novels, and has won many prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. His most recent novel Love and Summer was longlisted for the Booker Prize. He is also a renowned writer of short stories, and his two-volume Collected Stories was published by Viking Penguin in 2009. In 1999 William Trevor received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement, and in 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature.

'You're beautiful,' Johnny told her and so, full of hope, seventeen-year-old Felicia crosses the Irish Sea to England to find her lover and tell him she is pregnant. Desperately searching for Johnny in the bleak post-industrial Midlands, she is, instead, found by Mr Hilditch, a strange and lonely man, a collector and befriender of homeless young girls... Felicia's Journey is a compelling psychological thriller, tense and unsettling.

Cheating at Canasta

Cheating at Canasta - an outstanding collection of stories by the master storyteller William Trevor 
 
'There is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world' Wall Street Journal 
 
''No matter what,' Julia had said, aware then of what was coming, 'let's always play cards.' And they did; for even with her memory gone, a little more of it each day - her children taken, her house, her flowerbeds, belongings, clothes - their games in the communal drawing room were a reality her affliction allowed.' 
 
A husband sits in Harry's Bar in Venice, thinking of his wife - lost to him now - whose plea has brought him back to one of their favourite haunts. On another table, a young couple quarrel. 'Cheating at Canasta' is the title story of William Trevor's collection, his first since the highly acclaimed A Bit on the Side, and its themes of missed opportunities, the inevitability of change and the powerful but fragmentary quality of our memories are entirely characteristic of his unparalleled oeuvre.

'No matter what,' Julia had said, aware then of what was coming, 'let's always play cards.' And they did; for even with her memory gone, a little more of it each day - her children taken, her house, her flowerbeds, belongings, clothes - their games in the communal drawing room were a reality her affliction allowed. 
 
A husband sits in Harry's Bar in Venice, thinking of his wife - lost to him now - whose plea has brought him back to one of their favourite haunts. On another table, a young couple quarrel. 'Cheating at Canasta' is the title story of William Trevor's new collection, his first since the highly acclaimed A Bit on the Side (2004), and its themes of missed opportunities, the inevitability of change and the powerful but fragmentary quality of our memories are entirely characteristic of his unparalleled oeuvre.

Love and Summer

Love and Summer - a remarkable, heart-rending novel by acclaimed writer William Trevor 
 
'Lingers in the memory as a beautiful meditation on love, belonging and the impossibility of escape' Observer 
 
'Unbearably moving' Spectator 
 
It is summer and a stranger has come to quiet Rathmoye. He is noticed by Ellie, the young convent girl, who is married to Dillahan, a farmer still mourning his first wife. Over the long and warm days, Ellie and the stranger form an illicit attachment. And those in the town can only watch, holding their tongues, as passion, love and fate take their inevitable course. 
 
'A portrait of a brackish rural backwater, complete with family tragedy, sexual scandal, a repressed spinster and a half-crazed ancient retainer . . . delicate, elegiac, written with all Trevor's trademark compassion and understanding' Daily Mail 
 
'A series of wrenching human dramas, which Trevor depicts with kindness and beautiful delicacy' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'Brilliant. Trevor is the ultimate Old Master' Evening Standard 
 
'Beautiful. A flawless work of art' Independent on Sunday 
 
Readers of The Story of Lucy Gault and Felicia's Journey will adore Love and Summer. It will also be cherished by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written eighteen novels and novellas, and hundreds of short stories, for which he has won a number of prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. In 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature. His books in Penguin are: After Rain; A Bit on the Side; Bodily Secrets; Cheating at Canasta; The Children of Dynmouth; The Collected Stories (Volumes One and Two); Death in Summer; Felicia's Journey; Fools of Fortune; The Hill Bachelors; Love and Summer; The Mark-2 Wife; Selected Stories; The Story of Lucy Gault and Two Lives.

It is summer and a stranger has come to quiet Rathmoye. He is noticed by Ellie, the young convent girl, who is married to Dillahan, a farmer still mourning his first wife. Over the long and warm days, Ellie and the stranger form an illicit attachment. And those in the town can only watch, holding their tongues, as passion, love and fate take their inevitable course.

The Story of Lucy Gault

Shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize 
 
'A masterwork. I doubt that I have read a book as moving in at least a decade. A homage to the redemptive power of love' Independent 
 
Summer, 1921. Eight-year-old Lucy Gault clings to the glens and woods above Lahardane - the home her family is being forced to abandon. She knows the Gaults are no longer welcome in Ireland and that danger threatens. Lucy, however, is headstrong and decides that somehow she must force her parents into staying. But the path she chooses ends in disaster. One chance event, unwanted and unexpected, will blight the lives of the Gaults for years to come and bind each of them in different ways to this one moment in time, to this wild stretch of coast . . . 
 
'Flawless. Guaranteed to keep you reading - all through the night if necessary - to find out what happens. Trevor's best novel' New Statesman 
 
'Dark, elegantly written ... a book to relish' Independent on Sunday

Stark yet tender, without a single false note.  There will be only a handful of novels worth reading this year (or any year) . . . this book is certainly one

Flawless . . . not a single word seems out of place.  Guaranteed to keep you reading - all trhough the night if necessary - to find out what happens.  Trevor's best novel

Striking, throughtful.  Written with grace and finesse and charged throughout with a persuasive disquiet

Dark, elegantly written . . . a book to relish

A masterwork.  I doubt that I have read a book as moving in at least a decade.  A homage to the gift of redemptive love

Summer, 1921. Eight-year-old Lucy Gault clings to the glens and woods above Lahardane - the home her family is being forced to abandon. She knows the Gaults, as Protestants, are no longer welcome in Ireland and that danger threatens. She is headstrong and decides that somehow she must force her parents into staying. But the path she chooses ends in disaster. 
 
One chance event, unwanted and unexpected, will blight the lives of the Gaults for years to come and bind each of them in different ways to this one moment in time forever. Trevor's novel, shortlisted for both the Booker and Whitbread Prizes, beautifully evokes rural Ireland and the tensions existing there, but also delicately portrays the terrible impact of mere chance on our lives.

Reading Turgenev & My House in Umbria

Two Lives

Two Lives: Reading Turgenev &amp; My House in Umbria - two novels by William Trevor 
 
'Evocative and haunting. Trevor writes like an angel, but is determined to wring your heart' Daily Mail 
 
'Marvellous, superb. As rich and moving as anything I have read in years. When I reach the end . . . I wanted to start right again at the beginning' Guardian 
 
In Reading Turgenev an Irish country girl is trapped in a loveless marriage with an older man, but finds release through secret meetings with a man who shares her passion for Russian novels. 
 
My House in Umbria tells of Emily Delahunty, a writer of romantic novels, who helps the survivors of a bomb attack on a train to convalesce, inventing colourful pasts for her patients. 
 
Two novels, two women who retreat further into the realm of the imagination until the boundaries between what is real and what is not become blurred . . . 
 
'One of the most beautiful and memorable things Trevor has written' Independent on Sunday 
 
Reading Turgenev was shortlisted for the Booker Prize

As rich and moving as anything I have read in years.  When I reached the end of both of these marvellous novels, I wanted to start right again at the beginning

These novels will endure.  And in every beautiful sentence there is not a word out of place

Inquisitive and loving.  Trevor's is among the most subtle and sophisticated fiction being written today

A writer at the peak of his powers; it reminds you what good reading is all about

Reading Turgenev is one of the most beautiful and memorable things he has written. It stays in your memory -like Turgenev

He writes like an angel, but is determined to wring your heart.  Trevor at his most evocative and haunting

Two beautiful, memorable novels in one volume, both focussing on women who retreat into their imaginations until the boundaries between what is real and what is not become blurred. 
 
In 'Reading Turgenev', an Irish country girl is trapped in a loveless marriage with an older man. But she finds unusual solace - in secret meetings with a man who shares her passion for Russian novels. This novella was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. 
 
The second story, 'My House in Umbria' tells how romantic novelist Emily Delahunty helps the survivors of a bomb attack on a train and invents colourful pasts for her patients.

After Rain

After Rain - Twelve remarkable stories by the master storyteller William Trevor 
 
'There is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world' Wall Street Journal 
 
In this collection of twelve dazzling, acutely rendered tales, William Trevor plumbs the depths of the human heart. Here we encounter a blind piano tuner whose wonderful memories of his first wife are cruelly distorted by his second; a woman in a difficult marriage who must choose between her indignant husband and her closest friend; two children, survivors of divorce, who mimic their parents' melodramas; and a heartbroken woman traveling alone in Italy who experiences an epiphany while studying a forgotten artist's Annunciation. 
Trevor is, in his own words, 'a storyteller. My fiction may, now and again, illuminate aspects of the human condition, but I do not consciously set out to do so.' Conscious or not, he touches us in ways that few writers even dare to try.

A remarkable collection of twelve new stories,mostly set in Ireland,which was greeted with universal acclamation when published in hardcover in 1996. The title story is a small, sad masterpiece, about a woman holidaying alone in an Italian hotel. 
 
&quot;A dazzling collection of short stories&quot; SUNDAY TIMES

A Bit on the Side

A Bit on the Side - Twelve remarkable stories by the master storyteller William Trevor 
 
'Compassionate, poignant, even heart-rending. Almost perfect works of art by perhaps the greatest short story writer now working in English' Sunday Independent 
 
William Trevor is truly a Chekhov for our age. In these twelve stories, a waiter divulges a shocking life of crime to his ex-wife; a woman repeats the story of her parents' unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy; a schoolgirl regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her; and, in the volume's title story, a middle-aged accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair. At the heart of this stunning collection is Trevor's characteristic tenderness and unflinching eye for both the humanizing and dehumanizing aspects of modern urban and rural life. 
 
If you enjoyed The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer, you will love this book. It will also be adored by readers of Colm Toibin, George Saunders and James Joyce. 
 
'A treat ... each meditate[s] on the subject of love - adulterous, unspoken, clandestine, sometimes cruel. Whether set in rural Ireland or London, their pages whisper of relished secrets and dreams foolishly clung to' Mail on Sunday 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written eighteen novels and novellas, and hundreds of short stories, for which he has won a number of prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. In 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature. His books in Penguin are: After Rain; A Bit on the Side; Bodily Secrets; Cheating at Canasta; The Children of Dynmouth; The Collected Stories (Volumes One and Two); Death in Summer; Felicia's Journey; Fools of Fortune; The Hill Bachelors; Love and Summer; The Mark-2 Wife; Selected Stories; The Story of Lucy Gault and Two Lives.

'A treat ... each meditate[s] on the subject of love - adulterous, unspoken, clandestine, sometimes cruel - from domestic betrayals to office romances. Whether set in rural Ireland or London, their pages whisper of relished secrets and dreams foolishly clung to'  Mail on Sunday

Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel

Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel by William Trevor - a classic early novel by one of the world's greatest writers 
 
The probings of an outsider bring havoc to a crumbling Dublin hotel 
 
What was the tragedy that turned O'Neill's hotel from plush establishment into a dingy house of disrepute? Ivy Eckdorf is determined to find out. A professional photographer, she has come to Dublin convinced that a tragic and beautiful tale lies behind the facade of this crumbling hotel. The aging proprietor lies dying upstairs while her feckless son is lost in a world of drink and horseracing; and the loyal O'Shea, accompanied everywhere by his greyhound, seeks to keep the hotel on the road. As Mrs Eckdorf worms her way into lives that centre on the hotel, she becomes as much a victim as they are. 
 
'An astounding richness of pathos, humour and tragedy' Francis King 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.

What was the tragedy that turned O'Neill's hotel from plush establishment into a dingy house of disrepute? Ivy Eckdorf is determined to find out. A professional photographer, she has come to Dublin convinced that a tragic and beautiful tale lies behind the facade of this crumbling hotel. The aging proprietor lies dying upstairs while her feckless son is lost in a world of drink and horseracing; and the loyal O'Shea, accompanied everywhere by his greyhound, seeks to keep the hotel on the road. As Mrs Eckdorf worms her way into lives that centre on the hotel, she becomes as much a victim as they are.

Miss Gomez and the Brethren

Miss Gomez and the Brethren by William Trevor - a classic early novel from one of the world's greatest writers 
 
'Like Rembrandt, Trevor looks long but charitably upon his creations . . . his understanding of human nature is acute' Sunday Times 
 
Beryl Tuke, whiling time away in the Thistle Arms with gin and cheap romances, and Alban Roche at Bassett's Petstore are among the street's dream-ridden survivors. A new arrival, Miss Gomez, on the run from her tragic childhood in Jamaica, now lives for her postal correspondence with the Church of the Brethren of the Way back on the island. No one will believe Miss Gomez when she announces her revelation of a hideous sex crime soon to be committed in Crow Street. That is, until young Prudence Tuke disappears, the police arrive, and the newspapers herald a 'Sex Crime Prophecy'... 
 
'The genius of William Trevor is that he can entice you into his fictional terrain in a handful of pages' Literary Review 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement, and has been knighted for his services to literature.

Beryl Tuke, whiling time away in the Thistle Arms with gin and cheap romances, and Alban Roche at Bassett's Petstore are among the street's dream-ridden survivors. A new arrival, Miss Gomez, on the run from her tragic childhood in Jamaica, now lives for her postal correspondence with the Church of the Brethren of the Way back on the island. No one will believe Miss Gomez when she announces her revelation of a hideous sex crime soon to be committed in Crow Street. That is, until young Prudence Tuke disappears, the police arrive, and the newspapers herald a 'Sex Crime Prophecy'...

Elizabeth Alone

Elizabeth Alone by William Trevor - a powerful and moving novel from one of the world's finest writers 
 
After nineteen years of marriage, three children and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go to hospital for an emergency operation. From her hospital bed she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly it doesn't look very edifying: there's the 17 year old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc she caused by the affair. 
 
No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache? 
 
Readers of Love and Summer and Felicia's Journey will be delighted by Elizabeth Alone. It will also be enjoyed by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 
 
'A finely observed, gently sensitive comedy, delightful to read' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling' Hilary Mantel 
 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.

After nineteen years of marriage, three children and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go to hospital for an emergency operation. From her hospital bed she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly it doesn't look very edifying: there's the 17 year old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc she caused by the affair. 
No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache?

Other People's Worlds

Other People's Worlds by William Trevor - a classic early novel by one of the world's greatest writers 
 
What chance has a nice middle-class woman got against a determined conman? 
 
47-year-old widow, Julia, is about to remarry, much to the delight and relief of her daughters. But her mother has suspicions about Francis which she keeps to herself. Perhaps wrongly: if she'd shared her feelings with her daughter the disaster might have been avoided. Meanwhile there are two other women who have a claim on the would-be bridegroom - and the way things are shaping up it might be one of them, rather than Julia, who comes off worst out of the situation. 
 
William Trevor's brilliant novel explores the small horrors that lie close to the surface of ordinary life. 
 
'A constantly surprising work, pungent with the sense of evil and corruption' John Updike, New Yorker 
 
'Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling' Hilary Mantel 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.

47-year-old widow, Julia, is about to remarry, much to the delight and relief of her daughters. But her mother has suspicions about Francis which she keeps to herself. Perhaps wrongly: if she'd shared her feelings with her daughter the disaster might have been avoided. Meanwhile there are two other women who have a claim on the would-be bridegroom - and the way things are shaping up it might be one of them, rather than Julia, who comes off worst out of the situation. 
William Trevor's brilliant novel explores the small horrors that lie close to the surface of ordinary life.

Fools of Fortune

Fools of Fortune by William Trevor - a classic early novel from one of the world's greatest writers 
 
Winner of the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel of the Year 
 
Murder and revenge during the Irish Civil War 
 
The Quintons have lived in the old house in Cork for hundreds of years. Though Anglo-Irish Protestant, they sympathize with the cause of independence and secretly fund Michael Collins' fighters. But one of their workers is an informer to the British, and when he's murdered on their land, though they know nothing of it, the Black and Tans come seeking revenge. 
 
Till now young Willy Quinton has led a pleasant, cosseted life. But the murder of his father and sisters by British soldiers brings him to a point when he can only contemplate revenge himself. He sets off for Liverpool with hatred in his heart. Will he survive? Will the cycle ever be broken? 
 
'To my mind William Trevor's best novel and a very fine one' Graham Greene 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, in 1928. He spent his childhood in Ireland and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, but has lived in England for many years. An acknowledged master of the short-story form, he has also written many highly acclaimed novels: he has won the Whitbread Fiction Prize three times and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize four times. His most recent novel was Love and Summer (Penguin, 2010).

The Quintons have lived in the old house in Cork for hundreds of years. Though Anglo-Irish Protestant, they sympathize with the cause of independence and secretly fund Michael Collins' fighters. But one of their workers is an informer to the British, and when he's murdered on their land, though they know nothing of it, the Black and Tans come seeking revenge. 
Till now young Willy Quinton has led a pleasant, cosseted life. But the murder of his father and sisters by British soldiers brings him to a point when he can only contemplate revenge himself. He sets off for Liverpool with hatred in his heart. Will he survive? Will the cycle ever be broken?

Nights at the Alexandra

Nights at the Alexandra by William Trevor - a classic early novel by one of the world's greatest writers 
 
A brief encounter in wartime Ireland - the memory of which lasts a lifetime 
In a small town in Ireland middle-aged Harry looks back on his wartime adolescence when he fetched and carried for the beautiful young Englishwoman who had taken over the big stone house with her much older German husband. But Frau Messinger's health is failing, and her husband decides to build a cinema in the town to honour her. Harry will work in it; one day he will own it; and he will always remain captive to the memory of the beguiling young woman who arrived suddenly from abroad and lit up his drab provincial life. 
William Trevor's gift of understanding the poignancy in apparently small lives is beautifully realized in this short novel. 
 
'Perfect in its making and its length' The Times 
 
'Certainly lingers in the mind. I am prepared to bet that I will still remember it in a year's time, which is a test of genuine excellence' Harriet Waugh, Spectator 
 
William Trevor was born in Ireland in 1928 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He is regarded as one of the greatest short story writers in English, and has also written many award-winning novels, most recently The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer. For many years he has lived in Devon.

In a small town in Ireland middle-aged Harry looks back on his wartime adolescence when he fetched and carried for the beautiful young Englishwoman who had taken over the big stone house with her much older German husband. But Frau Messinger's health is failing, and her husband decides to build a cinema in the town to honour her. Harry will work in it; one day he will own it; and he will always remain captive to the memory of the beguiling young woman who arrived suddenly from abroad and lit up his drab provincial life. 
William Trevor's gift of understanding the poignancy in apparently small lives is beautifully realized in this short novel.

The Silence in the Garden

The Silence in the Garden by William Trevor - a classic early novel by one of the world's greatest writers 
 
Family secrets take their toll on the children of an old Irish family 
 
In the summer of 1904 Sarah Pollenfax, the daughter of an impecunious clergyman, arrives at Carriglas, an island off the coast of Cork, to act as governess for her distant cousins. It's a magical time in a magical place. But when she comes back almost thirty years later, after the First World War and the Irish Civil War have taken their toll, she discovers that there were things going on during that apparently idyllic summer which now horrify her and which cast a long shadow over the remnants of the family still living there. 
 
'William Trevor's precisions and indirections slowly and balefully accumulate in this, his most ambitious novel' Anthony Thwaite, London Review of Books 
 
'Offers marvels with Mr Trevor's customary understated dexterity' New York Times 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, in 1928. He spent his childhood in Ireland and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, but has lived in England for many years. An acknowledged master of the short-story form, he has also written many highly acclaimed novels: he has won the Whitbread Fiction Prize three times and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize four times. His most recent novel was Love and Summer (Penguin, 2010).

In the summer of 1904 Sarah Pollenfax, the daughter of an impecunious clergyman,  arrives at Carriglas, an island off the coast of Cork, to act as governess for her distant cousins. It's a magical time in a magical place. But when she comes back almost thirty years later, after the First World War and the Irish Civil War have taken their toll, she discovers that there were things going on during that apparently idyllic summer which now horrify her and which cast a long shadow over the remnants of the family still living there.

The Children Of Dynmouth

The Children Of Dynmouth - a classic prize-winning novel by William Trevor 
 
William Trevor's The Children of Dynmouth (Winner of the Whitbread Award and shortlisted for the Booker Prize) was first published in 1976 and is a classic account of evil lurking in the most unlikely places. In it we follow awkward, lonely, curious teenager Timothy Gedge as he wanders around the bland seaside town of Dynmouth. Timothy takes a prurient interest in the lives of the adults there, who only realise the sinister purpose to which he seeks to put his knowledge too late. 
 
'A small masterpiece of understatement ... a work of rare compassion' Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times 
 
If you enjoyed The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer, you will love this book. It will also be adored by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written eighteen novels and novellas, and hundreds of short stories, for which he has won a number of prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. In 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature. His books in Penguin are: After Rain; A Bit on the Side; Bodily Secrets; Cheating at Canasta; The Children of Dynmouth; The Collected Stories (Volumes One and Two); Death in Summer; Felicia's Journey; Fools of Fortune; The Hill Bachelors; Love and Summer; The Mark-2 Wife; Selected Stories; The Story of Lucy Gault and Two Lives.

William Trevor's The Children of Dynmouth was first published in 1976. In it we follow awkward, lonely, curious teenager Timothy Gedge as he wanders around the bland south-coast seaside town of Dynmouth. Timothy takes a prurient interest in the lives of the adults there, who only realize the sinister purpose to which he seeks to put his knowledge too late. This brilliant novel is eerily prescient as it shows a young person's obsession with fame and his capacity for evil.

The Old Boys

The Old Boys by William Trevor - a novel of power, revenge, love and the failure of love from one of the world's best writers 
 
A group of septuagenarians revive schoolboy conflicts in the election of the President of the Old Boys Association. Jaraby expects to get the job, but he reckons without the bitterness of Nox, who still remembers the humiliations of his school years. And when Jaraby's son gets into trouble with the law, Nox has the perfect stick with which to beat him. 
 
Their powers may be failing but the old boys possess a fierce understanding of the things in life that matter - power, revenge, hatred, love, and the failure of love. 
 
The Old Boys was William Trevor's acclaimed first novel. It will be enjoyed by fans of The Story of Lucy Gault and Felicia's Journey, as well as readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 
 
'Uncommonly well-written, gruesome , funny and original' Evelyn Waugh 
 
'Immaculately witty and inventive writing' Daily Telegraph 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.

A group of septuagenarians revive schoolboy conflicts in the election of the President of the Old Boys Association. Jaraby expects to get the job, but he reckons without the bitterness of Nox, who still remembers the humiliations of his school years. And when Jaraby's son gets into trouble with the law, Nox has the perfect stick with which to beat him. 
Their powers may be failing but the old boys possess a fierce understanding of the things in life that matter - power, revenge, hatred, love, and the failure of love. 
The Old Boys was William Trevor's acclaimed first novel.

The Boarding House

The Boarding House by William Trevor - a darkly comic novel by one of the world's best writers 
 
William Bird has always taken in boarders who are on the fringes of society: the petty conman, the immigrant who's never been able to fit in, the blustering officer who really doesn't know what's what , and the just plain lonely. He's built a unique place with a unique atmosphere. But then he realizes he's dying, and he decides to leave the place to the two tenants likely to cause the greatest amount of trouble, and the whole enterprise goes up in smoke. 
 
William Trevor's dark comedy, reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark, was his second novel. 
 
'Trevor has the knack of slicing life so that it reveals lower layers we have not suspected' Daily Mail 
 
'He tells you the most outrageous things in a most pleasant manner, hardly ever raising his voice' Guardian 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.

William Bird has always taken in boarders who are on the fringes of society: the petty conman, the immigrant who's never been able to fit in, the blustering officer who really doesn't know what's what , and the just plain lonely. He's built a unique place with a unique atmosphere. But then he realizes he's dying, and he decides to leave the place to the two tenants likely to cause the greatest amount of trouble, and the whole enterprise goes up in smoke. 
William Trevor's dark comedy, reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark, was his second novel.

The Love Department

The Love Department by William Trevor - a darkly comic novel about a thief of the heart, by one of the world's best writers 
 
From the offices of her Love Department, Lady Dolores cures the heartaches of the lonely wives of Wimbledon with inimitable flourish and finesse. When her newest protege, the somewhat naive Edward Blakeston-Smith, is sent on a mission - to learn the secrets of seductive, scheming Septimus Tuam and stop him in his tracks - he learns all about love, its friends and enemies. 
 
The Love Department was William Trevor's third novel, published in 1966. It will be enjoyed by readers of Colm Toibin, Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark. 
 
'A fantasy which proliferates entertainingly from a germ of reality - the reality of boredom felt by comfortably-off suburban wives' Listener 
 
'William Trevor can pack into ten or twenty pages an astounding richness of pathos, humour and tragedy' Francis King 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.

From the offices of her Love Department, Lady Dolores cures the heartaches of the lonely wives of Wimbledon with inimitable flourish and finesse. When her newest protege, the somewhat naive Edward Blakeston-Smith, is sent on a mission - to learn the secrets of seductive, scheming Septimus Tuam and stop him in his tracks - he learns all about love, its friends and enemies. 
 
A dark comedy, The Love Department was William Trevor's third novel, published in 1966.

Death In Summer

Death In Summer - a beautiful and haunting novel by acclaimed writer William Trevor 
 
'Possibly the most perfect of Trevor's novels . . . Astonishing' Los Angeles Times Book Review 
 
There were three deaths that summer. The first was Letitia's, sudden and quite unexpected, leaving her husband, Thaddeus, haunted by the details of her last afternoon. 
 
The next death came some weeks later, after Thaddeus's mother-in-law helped him to interview for a nanny to bring up their baby. None of the applicants were suitable - least of all the last one, with her small, sharp features, her shabby clothes that reeked of cigarettes, her badly typed references - so Letitia's mother moved in herself. But then, just as the household was beginning to settle down, the last of the nannies surprisingly returned, her unwelcome arrival heralding the third of the summer tragedies. 
 
'William Trevor is an extraordinarily mellifluous writer, seemingly incapable of composing an ungraceful sentence . . . His skill is very real, and equals his great compassion' New York Times Book Review 
 
Readers of The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer will adore Death In Summer. It will also be cherished by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 
 
William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written eighteen novels and novellas, and hundreds of short stories, for which he has won a number of prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. In 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature. His books in Penguin are: After Rain; A Bit on the Side; Bodily Secrets; Cheating at Canasta; The Children of Dynmouth; The Collected Stories (Volumes One and Two); Death in Summer; Felicia's Journey; Fools of Fortune; The Hill Bachelors; Love and Summer; The Mark-2 Wife; Selected Stories; The Story of Lucy Gault and Two Lives.

The sudden death of Thaddeus Devenant's wife leaves him with the problem of childcare for baby Georgina. When none of the nannies interviewed is deemed suitable, Mrs Iveson, Thaddeus's mother-in-law, fulfils the position herself. But in rejecting one of the applicants, they have overlooked the beginnings of a fixed and unnatural obsession...

The Mark-2 Wife

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928 and spent his childhood in provincial Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin. He has written many novels, and won many prizes including the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. The Hill Bachelors (2000), a collection of short stories, won both the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Short Stories and the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction in 2001. The Story of Lucy Gault (2002), was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. William Trevor's latest books are: A Bit On the Side (2004), on the theme of adultery; The Dressmaker's Child (2005); and Cheating at Canasta (2007). 
 
Many of William Trevor's stories have appeared in The New Yorker and other magazines. He has also written plays for the stage, and for radio and television. In 2002 William Trevor was awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of his services to literature.

"It's like gadgets in shops.You buy a gadget and you develop an affection for it... but all of a sudden there are newer and better gadgets in the shops.More up-to-date models." 
 
William Trevor has been acclaimed as the greatest contemporary writer of short stories in the English language, likened to Chekhov for his insights into human nature. These three tales of obsession, heartbreak, silent sorrow and the small tragedies of ordinary lives are profound, immaculate and beautiful. 
 
This book includes The Mark-2 Wife, The Time of Year and Cheating at Canasta.

William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

10 stories bring a literary career that lasted more than half a century to a consummate conclusion

William Trevor's prose runs as clear as water yet tastes like gin

Extraordinary stories from ordinary lives

One of the great contemporary chroniclers of the human condition, in all its pathos, comedy and strangeness. As a writer he looked at the world with an always surprised but never scandalised eye, and his writer's heart was with those awkward and obscurely damaged souls who cannot quite manage the business of everyday life - all of us, that is

There are those rare, exceptional writers who are fortunate enough (like their readers) to burn bright and steady over many decades, expressing the same creative clarity at the end of their careers as they did at the beginning. William Trevor was one of those writers

We honor him as the supreme master of his honest art

In the first few paragraphs of a story he could set an entire scene without seeming to, working on details, small moments, odd thoughts. As in the work of Alice Munro, there often seemed to be very little happening in his fiction, but then he was capable of offering the reader a sense of an immense drama

His stories are formally beautiful and, at the same time, interested in the smallness of human lives. He was, as a writer, watchful, unsentimental, alert to frailty and malice. A master craftsman

Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling

He is one of the great short-story writers, at his best the equal of Chekhov

The strength of all his writing was an unshowy perfection of style, through which he expressed his unerring instinct for fairness. His total lack of self-importance allowed him to express what was important in the world around him. He was one of the greatest writers about justice and suffering, disguised as an ordinary person

A beautiful writer... I would not have become a writer at all had I not discovered his work.

The man - the work - was brilliant, elegant, surprising, reliable, precise, stark, often sad, sometimes funny, shocking and even frightening

There is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world

Writers often get asked which authors they return to again and again, their comfort books if you will, the ones that make them remember why fiction matters. William Trevor, I have answered on countless occasions. His stories. Any of them

He is, I think, sui generis, and in his 12 collections (and 13 novels, and two novellas: an exhibition of near-Updikean energy), he has created a version of the short story that almost ignores the form's hundred or so years of intricate evolution. These stories stay in the mind long after they're finished because they're so solid, so deliberately shaped and directed so surely toward their solemn, harsh conclusions

William Boyd, reviewing Cheating at Canasta in the 'New York Times'

A posthumous collection of stories by the Irish writer reflects his formidable craft

What you might call Trevor's parting shots are as robustly vivid and potent, as wistful and emotionally rigorous, as his more youthful oeuvre

William Trevor, master of the short story, was at the top of his game in his final decade

William Trevor's short fiction was the stuff of legend

Trevor's prose style is effortless, elegant and economical, but manages to contain the most  hugely difficult feelings: jealousy, guilt and yearning regret

An Irish writer, an international writer, a great writer. Put bluntly, he is revered by writers

In this final collection of ten exquisite, perceptive and profound stories, William Trevor probes into the depths of the human spirit. Here we encounter a tutor and his pupil, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when they meet again years later; a young girl who discovers the mother she believed dead is alive and well; and a piano-teacher who accepts her pupil's theft in exchange for his beautiful music. These gorgeous stories - the last that Trevor wrote before his death - affirm his place as one of the world's greatest storytellers.

William Trevor

Praise for Last Stories

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor

Books by William Trevor

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