After Rain: Stories

by William Trevor

Hardcover, 1996

Call number

FIC TRE

Collection

Publication

Viking Adult (1996), Edition: First Edition, 224 pages

Description

After Rain- Twelve remarkable stories by the master storyteller William Trevor 'There is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world' Wall Street Journal In this collection of twelve dazzling, acutely rendered tales, William Trevor plumbs the depths of the human heart. Here we encounter a blind piano tuner whose wonderful memories of his first wife are cruelly distorted by his second; a woman in a difficult marriage who must choose between her indignant husband and her closest friend; two children, survivors of divorce, who mimic their parents' melodramas; and a heartbroken woman traveling alone in Italy who experiences an epiphany while studying a forgotten artist's Annunciation. Trevor is, in his own words, 'a storyteller. My fiction may, now and again, illuminate aspects of the human condition, but I do not consciously set out to do so.' Conscious or not, he touches us in ways that few writers even dare to try. %%%After Rain- Twelve remarkable stories by the master storyteller William Trevor 'There is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world' Wall Street Journal In this collection of twelve dazzling, acutely rendered tales, William Trevor plumbs the depths of the human heart. Here we encounter a blind piano tuner whose wonderful memories of his first wife are cruelly distorted by his second; a woman in a difficult marriage who must choose between her indignant husband and her closest friend; two children, survivors of divorce, who mimic their parents' melodramas; and a heartbroken woman traveling alone in Italy who experiences an epiphany while studying a forgotten artist's Annunciation. Trevor is, in his own words, 'a storyteller. My fiction may, now and again, illuminate aspects of the human condition, but I do not consciously set out to do so.' Conscious or not, he touches us in ways that few writers even dare to try. If you enjoyed The Story of Lucy Gaultand Love and Summer, you will love this book. It will also be adored by readers of Colm Toibin, George Saunders and James Joyce. 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 andTwo); 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 andTwo Lives.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member aseikonia
Brilliantly written, finely tuned stories with compelling characters by one of the master's of the genre.
LibraryThing member pegmcdaniel
This book consists of 12 short stories, most of which have depressing plots, but they are so memorable. Mr. Trevor is a master when it comes to writing about ordinary people, their relationships, and domesticity. In each story, he explores deep feelings, many of which we can all relate to. Eleven
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of the settings are in Ireland and England, the twelfth in Italy.

I've also read Mr. Trevor's novels Love and Summer (4 Stars), Death in Summer (4.5 Stars), Felicia's Journey (4.5 Stars), The Story of Lucy Gault (4.5 Stars), and The Silence in the Garden (2 Stars). I recommend all of those that I rated 4 and 4.5 Stars.
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LibraryThing member jldarden
This is my first read from William Trevor and I have at least one more on the TBR. I appreciate the writing in these stories, he is truly gifted. However, I did find the style a little, um, old fashioned? The language did not seem to fit for the subjects of some of the stories. Notwithstanding, I
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plan on digging out his other work in my stack and look forward to reading more of his work.
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Awards

Pages

224

ISBN

0670870072 / 9780670870073
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