A Bit on the Side by William Trevor (Hardcover)

Detailed item info

Synopsis
This particular volume of William Trevor's stories--his 11th collection--centers on midlife regret. His mostly small-town-Irish protagonists are awash in nostalgia for what might have been--and fully, sadly aware that they have made crucial mistakes in their lives that it is now too late to undo. As always, Trevor writes with compassion and tenderness, but with his own special edge of discomfiting bleakness firmly in place. A New York Times Notable Book for 2004.

Key Details
Author:	William Trevor
Language:	English
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	067003343X
ISBN-13:	9780670033430

Size
Length:	244 pages
Thickness:	0.5 in
Weight:	14.4 oz

Publisher's Note
A new collection of short fiction by the acclaimed author of Felicia's Journey and The Story of Lucy Gault features twelve tales, including ones about a waiter who reveals his shocking life of crime to his ex-wife, the disintegration of a marriage following a terrible tragedy, and a middle-aged accountant who ends a love affair. 40,000 first printing.

Industry Reviews
"Although a fine novelist, Trevor is a superior short-story writer, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest living exponents of the form. He is on a different plane from his contemporaries....[Trevor] leads us into the recesses of the human heart with the precision of a surgeon and the eloquence of a poet. As usual these stories are models of concision, both exquisitely crafted and minutely observed. Details of speech and quirks of behaviour are distilled down to their essence.....Trevor's characters have their emotions stretched out and dissected on every page, leaving us to marvel at his artistry and feel compassion for their souls."
Literary Review - Sebastian Shakespeare (05/01/2004)

"[A] dozen wise and beautifully crafted pieces from a master....Most of the stories have to do with adultery, though the surprise is how many of the characters manage to treat one another with grace and kindness."
Kirkus Reviews (09/01/2004)

"[T]his latest collection of William Trevor's stories [is] as good as ever and as recognisable as ever....[A]bove all they deal in solitude, and how people try to break through it...."
Guardian (London) - Hermione Lee (06/12/2004)

"This is [Trevor's] tenth collection of new stories, and his famous economy and fluidity are as much in evidence as ever. Trevor describes interior states as concretely as he conjures his sparse domestic interiors....The governing artistic virtue, at all times, is truthfulness. There is nothing bogus or histrionic here....He expects our attention and, most of all, respects it. Which is why, outmoded though they may seem, these stories are the opposite of dated."
Atlantic Monthly - Joseph O'Neill (10/01/2004)

"What other writer could so regularly follow his own masterpieces...with another and then another? Year after year they come, novels, collections of stories like these--treasures of gorgeous writing, brilliant dialogue and unforgettable lives."
New York Times Book Review - Lynn Freed (09/26/2004)

"The stories in A BIT ON THE SIDE are characteristically attentive to disappointment and the necessity of resignation...The most valuable writing here...unites a comprehensive acceptance of things with a minute verbal attention that qualifies rather than contradicts it in the ordinary sense; it is precise, but not unkind as Trevor has sometimes been."
Times Literary Supplement - Oliver Herford (05/07/2004)