Most Popular Books by William Trevor

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.

Here is a new collection of twelve absorbing, deeply compassionate tales that reveal the subtle revenges of love and indifference, the deep wells of affection, and the strange, breathtaking tricks of chance that make up the texture of our lives. In the rain-washed Italian hills, a forgotten artist's Annunciation brings light to a heartbroken woman; insidiously, in her struggle for love, the second wife of a blind piano tuner distorts his memories of the first; two children, survivors of divorce, mimic their parents' dramas and passions; a mother, tied through love and fear to her son, watches with helpless dread as she realizes the monster he has become.

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.

From the pre-eminent author of Felicia’s Journey and Death in Summer, the first major collection of stories since the highly acclaimed After Rain. With understatement and startling precision William Trevor writes about longing and sadness, the loving and the lonely, those who barely have control over their lives and those who have something to hide. Whether writing of the dying of a day, a love or a way of life, Trevor tells a story of such distilled beauty and intelligence that humanity illuminates even its darkest corners. Eloquent, subtle and brilliantly crafted, The Hill Bachelors will hold a beloved place amongst William Trevor’s award-winning body of work and shows the master of short stories at the height of his game.

Penguin Classics is proud to welcome William Trevor—"Ireland’s answer to Chekhov" (The Boston Globe) and "one of the best writers of our era" (The Washington Post)—to our distinguished list of literary masters. In this award-winning novel, an informer’s body is found on the estate of a wealthy Irish family shortly after the First World War, and an appalling cycle of revenge is set in motion. Led by a zealous sergeant, the Black and Tans set fire to the family home, and only young Willie and his mother escape alive. Fatherless, Willie grows into manhood while his alcoholic mother’s bitter resentment festers. And though he finds love, Willie is unable to leave the terrible injuries of the past behind. First time in Penguin Classics Winner of the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award

A collection of short stories from celebrated author William Trevor in which he shines a light on the day-to-day life of Ireland and its citizens. From his debut collection, “The Day We Got Drunk on Cake,” published in 1968, to “Family Sins” (1990), William Trevor has crafted the short story to perfection, giving us brilliant and subtle stories full of the reversals, surprises, and shadowy truths we discover in life itself. To read this volume is not just to encounter an extraordinary literary stylist, but to understand life as surely as though we were looking through the eyes of his protagonists and—deeper still—into their hearts. William Trevor: The Collected Stories includes the tales from his seven previous books, as well as four stories that have never appeared in book form in America. They depict the comforts and frustrations of life in rural Ireland, the complexities of family relationships, and the elusive grace of love. They portray the almost invisible strands that bind people to each other as well as the chains that imprison them in solitary yearning.

The “wryly entertaining” debut novel of old grudges and petty power struggles from the Whitbread Award–winning author of Love and Summer (The New York Times). Graduates of an elite English public school, the septuagenarian members of the Old Boys Association have convened in London to decide who shall be their next president. Mr. Jaraby has been proposed, and unless there is an objection from his circle of peers, he will assume the position automatically. It seems like little more than an excuse to get together and reminisce about old pranks played on the headmaster. But while none of their boyhood bonds have been forgotten, neither have their old cruelties been forgiven. Mr. Nox certainly remembers Jaraby’s behavior from their time as schoolmates. And when he decides to oppose Jaraby for the presidency, the conflict unleashes decades of buried rivalries, regrets, failures, and the savage nature hidden just beneath good English manners. “The elemental value of Mr. Trevor’s wryly entertaining story lies less in its grubby specifics than in its illuminating generalities. It reminds us that at every level of every society there are groups of Old Boys cocooned in smug insularity.” —The New York Times

"The Story of Lucy Gault . . . once read, will never be forgotten."—The Washington Post Book World "Trevor was our twentieth century Chekov."—Wall Street Journal The stunning novel from highly acclaimed author William Trevor is a brilliant, subtle, and moving story of love, guilt, and forgiveness. The Gault family leads a life of privilege in early 1920s Ireland, but the threat of violence leads the parents of nine-year-old Lucy to decide to leave for England, her mother's home. Lucy cannot bear the thought of leaving Lahardane, their country house with its beautiful land and nearby beach, and a dog she has befriended. On the day before they are to leave, Lucy runs away, hoping to convince her parents to stay. Instead, she sets off a series of tragic misunderstandings that affect all of Lahardane's inhabitants for the rest of their lives.

It?s summer and nothing much is happening in Rathmoye. So it doesn?t go unnoticed when a dark-haired stranger appears on his bicycle and begins photographing the mourners at Mrs. Connulty?s funeral. Florian Kilderry couldn?t know that the Connultys are said to own half the town: he has only come to Rathmoye to photograph the scorched remains of its burnt- out cinema. A few miles out in the country, Dillahan, a farmer and a decent man, has married again: Ellie is the young convent girl who came to work for him when he was widowed. Ellie leads a quiet, routine life, often alone while Dillahan runs the farm. Florian is planning to leave Ireland and start over. Ellie is settled in her new role as Dillahan?s wife. But Florian?s visit to Rathmoye introduces him to Ellie, and a dangerously reckless attachment begins. In a characteristically masterly way Trevor evokes the passions and frustrations felt by Ellie and Florian, and by the people of a small Irish town during one long summer.

A New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book From the winner of the 1999 David Cohen British Literature Prize comes an unforgettably chilling novel, written with the compassion and artistry that define Trevor's fiction. 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 sharp features, her shabby clothes that reeked of cigarettes, her badly typed references—so Letitia’s mother moved herself in. 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. With Death in Summer, these two qualities combine in a beautiful and resonant way.”—The New York Time Book Review “Possibly the most perfect of Trevor’s novels . . . Astonishing.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Beautifully paced and mesmerizing . . . Offering us a compelling mystery on many levels through . . . finely drawn, perfect glimpses of touchingly imperfect lives.”—The Washington Post Book World Nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize

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 Times).

Full of hope, seventeen-year old Felicia crosses the Irish sea to the English Midlands in search of her lover Johnny to tell him she is pregnant. Unable to find him, alone and desperate, she is found instead by Mr. Hilditch, an obese catering manger, collector and befriender of homeless girls, who is also searching — in a way Felicia could never have imagined...

The Children Of Dynmouth - a classic prize-winning novel by William Trevor Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. The 1970s was a decade of anger and discontent. Britain endured power cuts and strikes. America pulled out of Vietnam and saw its President resign from office. Feminism and face lifts vied for women's hearts (and minds). And for many, prog rock, punk and disco weren't just music but ways of life. 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.

Two Lives: Reading Turgenev & 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 Readers of Love and Summer and Felicia's Journey will adore Two Lives. 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.

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. At 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, 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.

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).

These autobiographical tales are about people and places, personal fascinations and enthusiasms, that have remained snagged in William Trevor's memory over the years. He writes here of childhood and youth, of his schools and university days, his early life in Dublin and London, o Ireland and of England. Most of the portraits are of people who have either been well known to him or casually met/ a few are drawn from the imagination, though the subjects are real. Some of the landscapes are equally familiar to him, while others are merely glimpsed: Persia in the early seventies, a Swiss valley, Country cork in the thirties, a Gloucestershire village, Venice in November, New York and San Francisco. "Places do not die as people do," William Trevor writes in his introduction, "but they often changed so fundamentally that little is left of what once they were. The landscape of the Nire valley that spreads over a northern part of Country Waterford is timeless, but the Dublin remembered here is the Dublin of several pasts, and elsewhere among these impressions there is that same dichotomy." Affectionate, poignant and often gently humorous, these essays are an expansion of a writer's notebook. Such excursions into memory convey the essence of William Trevor's world - read in conjunction with Lucy Willis's graceful illustrations, they illuminate unforgettably the background to this celebrated novels and short stories.

An Englishwoman is taken in by a duplicitous suitor in this “constantly surprising work” from the Whitbread Award–winning author of Love and Summer (John Updike, The New Yorker). Forty-seven-year-old widow Julia Ferndale can’t believe her good luck—she’s about to remarry. What’s more, her fiancé, Francis Tyte, is a charming actor and magazine model fourteen years her junior. Her daughters are thrilled. Her mother is suspicious. But unfortunately for Julia, she keeps those suspicions to herself. After the wedding, Francis reveals a past that includes an abandoned wife, a mistress and child, and the many others he’s used and left behind to deal with his wreckage. Finding herself suddenly added to their number, Julia is shocked out of her dream and onto a sobering journey that leads into the savage realities of the world. “Pungent with the sense of evil and corruption.” —John Updike, The New Yorker “All the gifts that were obvious in Mr. Trevor’s earlier books are even more apparent here. . . . A book filled with narrative surprise and shrewd social observation, and has, in addition, an edge of genuine moral interest.” —The New York Times “Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling.” —Hilary Mantel on Felicia’s Journey

With stories set in Ireland, England, and Italy, this rich collection perfectly exemplifies Trevor's three great qualities: subtlety, honesty, and humanity. A fond depiction of the sad, anticlimactic moments in ordinary lives by a master of the short story.

THESE TWELVE SHORT STORIES DEAL WITH ORDINARY PEOPLE IN EXTRAORDINARY SITUATIONS.

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 young Irish girl overcomes the death of a beloved storyteller with the help of her grandmother who takes her on a trip.

Contains twelve short stories on the complexities of humanity.

Wealthy widow Norah Oâe(tm)Neill wonders if she will ever marry again. When her son decides to close the familyâe(tm)s failing toy factory, the manager, a decent man who dances the quickstep beautifully, becomes unemployed. Suddenly, Norah sees her chance for happiness, in a new venture of her own. United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to loveâe(tm)s endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional loveâe¦

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 hers. “An astounding richness of pathos, humour and tragedy.” —Francis King “A small work of art [that] reaches antic heights.” —The New York Times

Theme of survival in adverse circumstances - shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize; novel is also included in the special double edition T̀wo lives : reading Turgenev, and My house in Umbria'.