The Story of Lucy Gault - by William Trevor (Paperback)

About the Book

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this stunning novel from the author of "Felicia's Journey" is a brilliant, subtle, and moving story of love, guilt, and forgiveness set in early 1920s Ireland. A "New York Times" Notable Book.

Book Synopsis

"The Story of Lucy Gault . . . once read, will never be forgotten."--The Washington Post Book World

"Trevor was our twentieth century Chekov."--Wall Street Journal

The stunning novel from highly acclaimed author William Trevor is a brilliant, subtle, and moving story of love, guilt, and forgiveness. The Gault family leads a life of privilege in early 1920s Ireland, but the threat of violence leads the parents of nine-year-old Lucy to decide to leave for England, her mother's home. Lucy cannot bear the thought of leaving Lahardane, their country house with its beautiful land and nearby beach, and a dog she has befriended. On the day before they are to leave, Lucy runs away, hoping to convince her parents to stay. Instead, she sets off a series of tragic misunderstandings that affect all of Lahardane's inhabitants for the rest of their lives.

Review Quotes

"One of Trevor's finest works . . . Few living writers are capable of such mournful depth as William Trevor, and here he has given us an evensong to time itself."
--The Boston Globe

"Trevor was and remains an author against whom other talents are measured. His work earns its place in the canon that 'time's esteem' will keep alive."
--The Economist

"Mr. Trevor's pure observation and transparent prose should shame other writers."
--New York Sun

"Beautifully drawn and revelatory. Beautifully drawn and revelatory."
--Harper's Magazine

"Beautiful and devastating . . . Trevor has once again captured the terrible beauty of Ireland's fate, and the fate of us all-at the mercy of history, circumstance, and the vicissitudes of time."
--Alice McDermott, The Atlantic Monthly

"From the award-winning author of Felicia's Journey and My House in Umbria, a new novel that may well be his masterpiece."
--Philadelphia Inquirer

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.