Fools of Fortune (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Trevor, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143039628 ISBN 13: 9780143039624

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2006

Synopsis

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.

• First time in Penguin Classics

• Winner of the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award

About this title

About the Author

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, and spent his childhood in provincial Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin. He is the author of twenty-nine books, including Felicia’s Journey, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and was made into a motion picture, and The Story of Lucy Gault, which was shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Whitbread Fiction Prize. In 1996 he was the recipient of the Lannan Award for Fiction. In 2001, he won the Irish Times Literature Prize for fiction. Two of his books were chosen by The New York Times as best books of the year, and his short stories appeared regularly in The New Yorker. In 1997, he was named Honorary Commander of the British Empire.

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 Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0143039628
• ISBN 13: 9780143039624
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224