Fools of Fortune - Softcover

Trevor, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140069828 ISBN 13: 9780140069822

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1984

Synopsis

“To my mind Trevor's best novel and a very fine one.” —Graham Greene Penguin Classics is proud to welcome William Trevor—“Ireland's answer to Chekhov” ( The Boston Globe ) and “one of the best writers of our era” ( The Washington Post )—to our distinguished list of literary masters. In this award-winning novel, an informer's body is found on the estate of a wealthy Irish family shortly after the First World War, and an appalling cycle of revenge is set in motion. Led by a zealous sergeant, the Black and Tans set fire to the family home, and only young Willie and his mother escape alive. Fatherless, Willie grows into manhood while his alcoholic mother's bitter resentment festers. And though he finds love, Willie is unable to leave the terrible injuries of the past behind.

About this title

About the Author

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 writer of short stories, 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.

From AudioFile

Crowley does a skillful job navigating the variety of English and Irish accents of different classes in this tragedy. Furthermore, the wistfulness that infuses Crowley's reading is so in keeping with Trevor's work. There are elements of comedy and whimsy here, but this novel is mostly about how hatred and revenge during the "Irish troubles" consume possibilities for happiness and familial satisfaction. The imperatives of that conflict all but appropriate the novel's gentle, young hero, Willy Quinton, giving him only a glimpse of the contentment that should have been his. It's an understated novel and reading, which is indelible, as well. M.O. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140069828
• ISBN 13: 9780140069822
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 24