Last Stories

Description

The last collection of short stories by the master storyteller William Trevor In this final collection of ten exquisite, perceptive and profound stories, William Trevor probes into the depths of the human spirit. Here 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. These gorgeous stories - the last that Trevor wrote before his death - affirm his place as one of the world's greatest storytellers.

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland, in 1928. He is the author of fourteen much-lauded novels- he won the Whitbread Prize three times and was short-listed for the Booker Prize four times. Trevor was widely recognized to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the English language. In 1999 William Trevor received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement, and in 2002 he was awarded an honorary knighthood for his services to literature. He died in 2016.

None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor * Guardian * 10 stories bring a literary career that lasted more than half a century to a consummate conclusion * Sunday Times * William Trevor's prose runs as clear as water yet tastes like gin * Economist * Extraordinary stories from ordinary lives * The Times * One of the great contemporary chroniclers of the human condition, in all its pathos, comedy and strangeness. As a writer he looked at the world with an always surprised but never scandalised eye, and his writer's heart was with those awkward and obscurely damaged souls who cannot quite manage the business of everyday life - all of us, that is * New Statesman * There are those rare, exceptional writers who are fortunate enough (like their readers) to burn bright and steady over many decades, expressing the same creative clarity at the end of their careers as they did at the beginning. William Trevor was one of those writers * LA Times * We honor him as the supreme master of his honest art * Cynthia Ozick * In the first few paragraphs of a story he could set an entire scene without seeming to, working on details, small moments, odd thoughts. As in the work of Alice Munro, there often seemed to be very little happening in his fiction, but then he was capable of offering the reader a sense of an immense drama His stories are formally beautiful and, at the same time, interested in the smallness of human lives. He was, as a writer, watchful, unsentimental, alert to frailty and malice. A master craftsman Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling We honor him as the supreme master of his honest art * Cynthia Ozick * Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling -- Hilary Mantel He is one of the great short-story writers, at his best the equal of Chekhov -- John Banville In the first few paragraphs of a story he could set an entire scene without seeming to, working on details, small moments, odd thoughts. As in the work of Alice Munro, there often seemed to be very little happening in his fiction, but then he was capable of offering the reader a sense of an immense drama -- Colm Toibin The strength of all his writing was an unshowy perfection of style, through which he expressed his unerring instinct for fairness. His total lack of self-importance allowed him to express what was important in the world around him. He was one of the greatest writers about justice and suffering, disguised as an ordinary person -- Bernard O'Donoghue A beautiful writer... I would not have become a writer at all had I not discovered his work. -- Yiyun Li The man - the work - was brilliant, elegant, surprising, reliable, precise, stark, often sad, sometimes funny, shocking and even frightening -- Roddy Doyle His stories are formally beautiful and, at the same time, interested in the smallness of human lives. He was, as a writer, watchful, unsentimental, alert to frailty and malice. A master craftsman -- Anne Enright There is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world * Wall Street Journal * Writers often get asked which authors they return to again and again, their comfort books if you will, the ones that make them remember why fiction matters. William Trevor, I have answered on countless occasions. His stories. Any of them -- John Boyne He is, I think, sui generis, and in his 12 collections (and 13 novels, and two novellas: an exhibition of near-Updikean energy), he has created a version of the short story that almost ignores the form's hundred or so years of intricate evolution. These stories stay in the mind long after they're finished because they're so solid, so deliberately shaped and directed so surely toward their solemn, harsh conclusions -- William Boyd, reviewing Cheating at Canasta in the 'New York Times' A posthumous collection of stories by the Irish writer reflects his formidable craft * Observer * There are those rare, exceptional writers who are fortunate enough (like their readers) to burn bright and steady over many decades, expressing the same creative clarity at the end of their careers as they did at the beginning. William Trevor was one of those writers * LA Times * What you might call Trevor's parting shots are as robustly vivid and potent, as wistful and emotionally rigorous, as his more youthful oeuvre * Herald * William Trevor, master of the short story, was at the top of his game in his final decade * Telegraph * William Trevor's short fiction was the stuff of legend * Event Magazine * Trevor's prose style is effortless, elegant and economical, but manages to contain the most hugely difficult feelings: jealousy, guilt and yearning regret * Daily Mail * An Irish writer, an international writer, a great writer. Put bluntly, he is revered by writers -- Jhumpa Lahiri Extraordinary stories from ordinary lives * The Times * One of the great contemporary chroniclers of the human condition, in all its pathos, comedy and strangeness. As a writer he looked at the world with an always surprised but never scandalised eye, and his writer's heart was with those awkward and obscurely damaged souls who cannot quite manage the business of everyday life - all of us, that is -- John Banville * New Statesman * 10 stories bring a literary career that lasted more than half a century to a consummate conclusion -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times * William Trevor's prose runs as clear as water yet tastes like gin * Economist * None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor -- Julian Barnes * Guardian *