Nights at the Alexandra

Nights at the Alexandra

Summary

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.

About the author

William Trevor

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.
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