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William Trevor

Selected Stories Hardcover – November 4, 2010

by William Trevor (Author)

94 ratings

4.3 on Goodreads

507 ratings

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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).

Print length

576 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Viking
Publication date

November 4, 2010
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0670022063
ISBN-13

978-0670022069
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Trevor’s four most recent short story collections—After Rain (1996), The Hill Bachelors (2000), A Bit on the Side (2004), and Cheating at Canasta (2007)—merge all their pages into this deep reservoir into which avid fiction readers will dip repeatedly. Whether a story found in this magnificent accumulation is new to the reader or familiar, Trevor’s technical skills—for instance, abrupt time shifts that are seamless and add rich layering to both plot and characterization, and pinpoint-perfect word choice resonant as a subtle but effective spice—can be readily recognized by readers with an eye to fiction construction; but on the other hand, these skills will be unconsciously gathered by readers unconcerned with technical analysis. In this master storyteller’s hands, rural Ireland becomes the cosmos in which every one of us feels at home. The unfortunate ending of a friendship, the pain of a wife’s discovery of her husband’s affair, a husband’s sacrifice of his affair so his mistress won’t be regarded as just someone’s “bit on the side”—these specific situations assemble under the book’s umbrella theme of ordinary life as undulating waves of pleasures and crises. High-Demand Backstory: Irishman Trevor probably won’t be making any author tours in this country, but it is very likely his new book will be a cover review of the New York Times Book Review and will certainly be reviewed—and positively if not enthusiastically—everyplace else as well. --Brad Hooper

About the Author

William Trevor is the author of twenty-nine books, including Felicia’s Journey, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and was made into a motion picture. In 1996 he was the recipient of the Lannan Award for Fiction. In 2001, he won the Irish Times Literature Prize for fiction. Two of his books were chosen by The New York Times as best books of the year, and his short stories appear regularly in the New Yorker. In 1997, he was named Honorary Commander of the British Empire. He lives in Devon, England.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking; 1st Edition (November 4, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0670022063
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670022069
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,209,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17,205 in Short Stories (Books)

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William Trevor

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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 short-story writer, 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. He now lives in Devon.

Customer reviews

5 star		77%
4 star		9%
3 star		12%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Chantal

Expertly crafted

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 10, 2022

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Subtle and heartbreaking.

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Pat

item was received well packed and what I consider to be quite good condition with a dust jacket

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 6, 2016

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I don't know if this review is for the seller's actions or for the contents of the book itself. If for the seller, Jensen Books, item was received well packed and what I consider to be quite good condition with a dust jacket. If for the contents of the book, then - it is a book of short stories by William Trevor who is considered to be one of the premier short story writers. I have not read all of the stories as one does not just sit down and go through a book like this - as one does a novel. There is often a pause, perhaps reflection or an epiphany which the reader experiences, thus rendering the form of the short story unique in its capability to enlighten.

One person found this helpful

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DalJ

Character Studies By a Master

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 20, 2017

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I bought this book both for myself and a friend who is a librarian and book lover, both of us avid readers. Trevor's characters are of a timeless quality, fully drawn out in their human qualities and complexities. While written in and for a past generational era, the timeless human qualities are transcendent, relatable even now decades later. Each story takes its time in developing and that in itself is a quality that is both desired and satisfying. No car chases, technological plot advancements, nor jarring plot twists. The surprises are the illumination of character by their actions and their words, at times contradictory as they might be...a reasonable price for hours of satisfying reading

4 people found this helpful

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Jim Mac

Short story proficiency

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 14, 2011

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I've been enjoying Trevor's short stories for years; therefore many of the dozens of stories in this book were familiar to me. But I re-read all but one of them and enjoyed them all over again. The only one I skipped was too poignant so I couldn't bring myself to re-experience it. I never cease to be amazed at what Trevor can do with so few words. The Irish character are drawn so well they almost seem to be members of my family. They are very compelling and convincing and they resound in memory long after the story has been read, because Trevor's empathy always comes across. Even despicable characters have qualities that readers can relate to--which is unusual in a writer. And the Brits are different but equally interesting.I highly recommend this collection.

3 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

The Lives We Live

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 24, 2020

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Join Chekhov to James Joyce and you'd have William Trevor. A true master of the short story, Trevor inspects the lives of his characters with care and meditation to reveal, more often than not, the extraordinary where we least expect it.

One person found this helpful

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Would you want to be a friend…

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2022

… or even an acquaintance of William Trevor?

Yes and No. He has a phenomenal insight into a vast range of people along the spectrum of the human condition. On the other hand, there would always be a nagging suspicion that you might show up in one of his short stories, and he would pick the precise details of your life that would reveal so much, perhaps even to yourself.

This collection of 48 short stories, which covers some 550 pages, was given to me as a (wonderful) birthday present by a former fellow Amazon reviewer, way back in August. It was a wonderful goad for me to FINALLY “discover” one of the best short story writers in the English language. I have long been an admirer the Canadian short story writer, Alice Munro, who was justly awarded the Nobel Prize in 2013. There is now no question in my mind that the Irishman, who lived most of his life in England, William Trevor, is her equal. Ah, the vagaries, and just plain injustices of the literary award games: Trevor was never awarded the Nobel nor the Booker, and he deserved both.

Way, way back in school I had this puerile notion that short story writers were “children of a lesser god.” REAL writers completed novels. But it takes at least as much talent, if not more, to distill a novel’s insights into a 10- or 15-page story, which is what both Munro and Trevor can do. Trevor has a real talent for introducing the few characters in each story generally on the first page and tells us with just the right amount of repetitiveness what their relationships are to each other, as well as the wider world, so the careful reader is attuned to how these relationships impact the action of the story.

His stories are such a rich chocolate souffle that I decided to read only one a day. Thus, it took the better part of two months to complete all. I found that I had no favorites and there were no duds. Themes included marital relations, including infidelities; the impact of the modernizing world on rural areas, including the emigration from same; the decline of the influence of religion, including the pedophilia that has been a feature of the priesthood; and the English-Irish conflict, including Northern Ireland… and just a lot of people who are outliers from the norm… or is Trevor saying that we all have those tendencies?

Consider a sampling of the subject matter of his stories:
- a blind piano tuner marries two women he knew in his youth; after the first one died in her later years; he marries the other. A neighbor says: “she got the ruins of him.”
- In “Timothy’s Birthday” a couples’ adult gay son does not come to his party but sends his latest partner who is a petty thief.
- In “Child’s Play” two children, ages 9 and 10, play act in the attic aspects of their parent’s divorce.
- In “A Bit of Business” two hoods rob homes during the Pope’s visit to Ireland.
- In “Widows” a con man and his wife scam a woman for an unpaid paint bill after her husband dies.
- In “The Potato Dealer” a summer priest knocks up a young lass and a marriage is arranged.
- “Lost Ground” concerns the commemoration in Northern Ireland of King Williams victory over the Papist James in 1690, as though it had happened yesterday.
- “After Rain” had a touch of Anita Brookner in it. A 30-year-old woman seeks solace in a Pensione in Italy after a love-affair breakup.
- “Gilbert’s Mother” suspects that her crazy son, Gilbert, is behind numerous crimes, including the murder of a girl from a nearby pub.
- “Olivehill” is a family dealing with the end of the family farm and its conversion into a golf course.

And there is so much more. Trevor even managed to prod this strong anti-cleric into considering a re-read of Edwin O’Connor’s “The Edge of Sadness,” concerning an alcoholic Boston priest trying to get his vocation back on track. Several of Trevor’s stories involved men of the cloth, both Catholic and Protestant, and their realization of their increasing irrelevance in the wave of secularism sweeping over Ireland.

Truly an outstanding collection of short stories from a “greater god” of the literary world: William Trevor. Thanks Mike. 6-stars.

One person found this helpful

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joe

great product. fast service

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 6, 2021

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My order arrived promptly, in excellent condition.

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Jay Roudebush, Author of Secret of the Scarab

Makes the ordinary extraordinary

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 29, 2019

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I love Trevor’s short stories. Most of them involve ordinary people caught up in the messy business of life. There are no grand or heroic actions: merely people making choices with the hands life has dealt them. His prose is simultaneously nuanced, elegant and simple. These are stories to read many times.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Paul

An inspiration

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 30, 2019

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William Trevor once said that you don't so much write a short story as attack with a pair of scissors. His understanding of the human malaise of those feeling isolated and lonely even if their circumstances should dictate that they should feel otherwise was ahead of his time. He inspired me to pen a few short stories myself.

Jackie Swannell

Excellent writer. Always enjoy short stories but have never ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 27, 2016

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Excellent writer. Always enjoy short stories but have never read William Trevor. Book in very good condition.

One person found this helpful

Steve Heath

Top Man

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 22, 2014

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