William Trevor is truly a Chekhov for our age, and a new collection of stories from him is always a cause for celebration. These twelve stories include:
The waiter who divulges his shocking life of crime to his ex-wife.
A woman repeats the story of her parents’ unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy.
The schoolgirl who regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her.
A middle-aged couple meet in a theatre bar for a squalid blind date.
The disappointed priest who fears an innocent young girl may run away from home.
Two self-certain sisters visit a newly widowed local woman.
And, in the volume’s title story, a middle-age accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair.
From these slender moments Trevor creates whole lives, conjuring up characters marked by bitterness and loss. William Trevor’s graceful prose is a wonder in itself, and as convincing when inhabiting the mind of a school lunchmaid, an adulterous Irish country librarian or a murderer on the London streets. And as is always the case with William Trevor, venom and tragedy are never far from the still surface of the stories.
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.

The publication of a new book by William Trevor is a true literary event. One of our finest chroniclers of the human condition, Trevor?s precise and unflinching insights into the lives of ordinary people are evidenced once again in this stunning collection of twelve stories. Subtle yet powerful, these exquisitely nuanced tales of regret, deception, adultery, aging, and forgiveness are a rare pleasure, and they confirm Trevor?s reputation as a master of the form. From a chance encounter between two childhood friends to memories of a newly widowed man to a family grappling with the sale of ancestral land, Trevor examines with grace and skill the tenuous bonds of our relationships, the strengths that hold us together, and the truths that threaten to separate us.

William Trevor has established himself among the most celebrated authors of the past century. In 1997, he was named honorary Commander of the British Empire for his contributions to literature. A New York Times best-seller, Death in Summer is hailed as “astonishing” by the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Thaddeus Davenant’s wife has just died in an automobile accident, leaving him to raise their infant daughter alone. Haunted by his wife’s sudden death, Thaddeus agrees with his mother-in-law that the househould needs a nanny to help raise the child. Although she doesn’t get the job, one young woman forms an immediate, secret attachment to Thaddeus and the baby-an attachment that will eventually become dangerous. Death in Summer is Trevor at his finest-his fluid, poetic prose and profound understanding of human nature make for an amazingly graceful novel. Simon Prebble delivers a sumptuous reading that equals the deep compassion of this remarkable book.

-A stunning, rich novel of suspense from one of Ireland’s most distinguished writers. In Felicia’s Journey, Trevor gently explores the intricate relationship between a predator and his intended victim. Felicia is young and pregnant, having stolen away from a small Irish town to search for her boyfriend in the industrial sprawl of the English Midlands. Fat, 50ish, and unfailingly reasonable, Mr. Hilditch is looking for a new friend to join the five other girls he has “befriended.” Under Trevor’s master hand, both characters become startlingly sympathetic in their tragic dance from which only one of them will emerge victorious-and alive.

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 listener’s mind.
Subtle yet powerful, Trevor’s stories give 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 student’s serial thefts 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.

An author who has received international critical acclaim for his exquisite prose, William Trevor saw his novel The Story of Lucy Gault short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize. Love and Summer tells the tale of Ellie Dillahan, an orphan entered into a bleak future with the man she wed. As the story unfolds, Ellie’s life is thrown into tumult by a fateful encounter with another man. “What other living writer could so regularly follow his own masterpieces . with another and another?”-New York Times Book Review

Author of more than a dozen novels, including Felicia’s Journey, Irish author William Trevor is hailed as one of the most extraordinary writers of today. He has a special talent for examining the innermost regions of his characters’ hearts. The Story of Lucy Gault traces the repercussions of a child’s attempt to remain in her beloved home. Threatened with a move from Ireland to England, 9-year-old Lucy runs away, setting off a series of misunderstandings that will eventually touch each inhabitant of her village.