Last Stories

Completed not long before his death, William Trevor’s final story collection is the crowning achievement of a writer of unusual depth and sensitivity. 'What a writer he was; he could flip over a sentence so gently, and show the underbelly in a heartbeat. His work is always quietly compassionate' - Elizabeth Strout In this final collection of ten exquisite, perceptive and profound stories, William Trevor probes into the depths of the human spirit. Here we encounter a tutor and his pupil, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when they meet again years later; a young girl who discovers the mother she believed dead is alive and well; and a piano-teacher who accepts her pupil's theft in exchange for his beautiful music. These gorgeous stories - the last that Trevor wrote before his death - affirm his place as one of the world's greatest storytellers. An acclaimed novelist and playwright, it is nevertheless as a peerless short story writer that William Trevor will be best remembered. Described as 'the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language' by the New Yorker, he was arguably the greatest exponent of the form of his generation. Combining his trademark wit, eloquence, comic timing and probing insight into the human condition, this, his last collection, is a worthy swansong to an exceptional literary career.