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A Bit on the Side cover art

A Bit on the Side

Written by: William Trevor
Narrated by: Josephine Bailey, Simon Vance
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Publisher's Summary

William Trevor is truly a Chekhov for our age, and a new collection of stories from him is always a cause for celebration. These 12 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.

©2004 William Trevor (P)2004 Tantor Media, Inc.

What the critics say

"William Trevor really is the best short story writer alive." (Washington Post Book World)
"In these stories, as always in his fiction, Trevor adds to our understanding of human nature." (Booklist)
"The much-lauded Trevor explores the many sources and shadings of regret with his usual delicate but brilliant psychological nuance, brightened occasionally by nostalgia for the lost love that once impelled his characters forward." (Publishers Weekly)

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