William Trevor - Free Library Land Online - Western

Elizabeth Alone

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 11:35:39 +0200

Alone together in a London hospital ward, four women take stock of their lives in this "deeply moving novel" by the award-winning author of The Old Boys (The New York Times).
At forty-one, the news that she requires a hysterectomy strikes Elizabeth Aidallbery as something of a nonevent. But from her bed at Cheltenham Women's Hospital, the divorced mother of three comes to realize that she is at a crossroads. She meets two other women admitted for the same operation: Young Sylvie Clapper, who is preoccupied with her dishonest boyfriend; and poor Miss Samson, with her disfiguring birthmark, who runs a Christian boarding house. In the ward with them is Lily Drucker, determined to have a child despite insurmountable difficulties.

With compassion and wry humor, these very different women share their lives, concerns, and regrets. Elizabeth faces a lonesome life that includes a childhood friend turned hapless suitor, and a teenage daughter who has...

Last Stories

Sat, 10 Mar 2018 06:44:05 +0200

*A NEW YORK TIMES* NOTABLE BOOK

The beloved and acclaimed William Trevor's last ten stories

"The great Irish writer, who died in 2016 at the age of 88, captured turning points in individual lives with effective understatement. This seemingly quiet but ultimately volcanic collection is his final gift to us, and it is filled with action sprung from human feeling."
— The New York Times Book Review

With a career that spanned more than half a century, William Trevor is regarded as one of the best writers of short stories in the English language. Now, in Last Stories , the master storyteller delivers ten exquisitely rendered tales—nine of which have never been published in book form--that illuminate the human condition and will surely linger in the reader's mind long after closing the book. Subtle yet powerful, Trevor gives us insights into the lives of ordinary people. 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. This final and special collection is a gift to lovers of literature and Trevor's many admirers, and affirms his place as one of the world's greatest storytellers.

The Boarding-House

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 14:51:16 +0200

A London boarding-house becomes a battle ground in this "dazzling display of character-led fiction" from the award-winning author of The Old Boys (The Independent).
William Wagner Bird spent his life collecting lost souls—dispossessed immigrants, lonely old ladies, and the simply half-mad—to live in his London boarding-house. But when he dies, the true intent of his work is revealed in his diary. Bird had been watching them all closely, keeping notes on their sad and peculiar circumstances. And then there's the matter of his will, in which he leaves the house to the two tenants who most despise each other, the petty thief Mr. Studdy and the equally nasty Nurse Clock.
In this "rhapsody to misanthropy" Whitbread Award winner William Trevor paints a fascinating group portrait of society's outcasts, each of whom sees their small life unravel "in a manner somewhere between Dubliners and Grimm's fairy tales" (The New York...

Selected Stories, Volume 2

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:51:15 +0200

A marvelous collection from "the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language" (The New Yorker).
Four-time winner of the O. Henry Prize, three-time winner of the Whitbread Prize, and five-time finalist for the Man Booker Prize, William Trevor is one of the most acclaimed authors of our time. Over a career spanning more than half a century, Trevor has crafted exquisitely rendered tales that brilliantly illuminate the human condition. Bringing together forty-eight stories from After Rain, The Hill Bachelors, A Bit on the Side, and Cheating at Canasta, this second volume of Trevor's collected fiction offers readers "treasures of gorgeous writing, brilliant dialogue, and unforgettable lives" (The New York Times Book Review).

Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 14:38:14 +0200

The denizens of a crumbling Dublin hotel are the subject of a meddling photographer in this Booker Prize–shortlisted "masterpiece" (Irish Times).
Once a flourishing establishment, O'Neill's Hotel has fallen on hard times. The same could be said for the people who live there. Among them are Mrs. Sinnott, the elderly, deaf, and mute proprietor; her drunkard son, Eugene; Morrissey, a small-time pimp; and the grim, lone porter O'Shea. But what might sound bleak to some holds irresistible allure for globetrotting photographer Ivy Eckdorf.

Hearing stories of O'Neill's Hotel from an ocean liner barman, Eckdorf catches the unmistakable whiff of human interest. Surely some tragic story hides within this crumbling corner of Ireland. Now she intends to uncover that story, frame it just so, and turn it into her next coffee table book. Though she has no connection to these hard-luck souls, she has arrived. And no one's life will be the same—not even...

After Rain

Tue, 31 Oct 1995 20:04:33 +0200

Chosen by the editors of The New York Times Book Review as one of the eight best books of 1996, After Rain presents a collection of twelve dazzling, acutely rendered stories that plumb the depths of the human heart. "Short fiction at its finest."--San Francisco Chronicle.

Felicia's Journey

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:04:33 +0200

The Hill Bachelors

Wed, 31 Oct 2001 20:04:34 +0200

The Story of Lucy Gault

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:04:34 +0200

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' IndependentSummer, 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

Selected Stories

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:04:34 +0200

The Silence in the Garden

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 14:51:16 +0200

The Whitbread Award–winning author "demonstrates a master's touch" in this tale of an aristocratic Irish family's ruinous path toward modernity (The New York Times).
An island estate off the coast of county Cork, Carriglas has been in the Rolleston family for centuries. Sarah Pollexfen, a distant relation of little means, remembers the magical summer she spent there as a child in 1904. But much has changed in Ireland since then. And when Sarah returns nearly thirty years later, she finds Carriglas much changed as well.

World War I and the Irish Troubles have taken their toll on the Rollestons. Sarah's cousins, who once seemed to sparkle with beauty and wit, have grown dour and withdrawn. And as Sarah uncovers the tragedies they've endured, she'll also discover the terrible truth about that seemingly idyllic summer in 1904.

A Bit on the Side

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:04:34 +0200

The Mark-2 Wife

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:04:33 +0200

"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.

The Love Department

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:04:34 +0200

The Love Department by William Trevor - a darkly comic novel about a thief of the heart, by one of the world's best writersFrom 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...