It is this Dona who flees the stews of London for remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds there the passion her spirit craves -- in the love of a daring pirate hunted by all Cornwall, a Frenchman who, like Dona, would gamble his life for a moment's joy.

“Did you—were you expecting someone else?�� he asked.

“Only the Queen,�� replied Caroline, chuckling. “Don’t mind me,�� she added. “I often go slightly mad.��

'Like Rembrandt, Trevor looks long but charitably upon his creations . . . his understanding of human nature is acute' Sunday Times

Beryl Tuke, whiling time away in the Thistle Arms with gin and cheap romances, and Alban Roche at Bassett's Petstore are among the street's dream-ridden survivors. A new arrival, Miss Gomez, on the run from her tragic childhood in Jamaica, now lives for her postal correspondence with the Church of the Brethren of the Way back on the island. No one will believe Miss Gomez when she announces her revelation of a hideous sex crime soon to be committed in Crow Street. That is, until young Prudence Tuke disappears, the police arrive, and the newspapers herald a 'Sex Crime Prophecy'...

'The genius of William Trevor is that he can entice you into his fictional terrain in a handful of pages' Literary Review

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement, and has been knighted for his services to literature.

Family secrets take their toll on the children of an old Irish family

In the summer of 1904 Sarah Pollenfax, the daughter of an impecunious clergyman, arrives at Carriglas, an island off the coast of Cork, to act as governess for her distant cousins. It's a magical time in a magical place. But when she comes back almost thirty years later, after the First World War and the Irish Civil War have taken their toll, she discovers that there were things going on during that apparently idyllic summer which now horrify her and which cast a long shadow over the remnants of the family still living there.

'William Trevor's precisions and indirections slowly and balefully accumulate in this, his most ambitious novel' Anthony Thwaite, London Review of Books

'Offers marvels with Mr Trevor's customary understated dexterity' New York Times

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, in 1928. He spent his childhood in Ireland and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, but has lived in England for many years. An acknowledged master of the short-story form, he has also written many highly acclaimed novels: he has won the Whitbread Fiction Prize three times and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize four times. His most recent novel was Love and Summer (Penguin, 2010).

Extremely controlled studies of constrained desire, loneliness, and incomplete relationships, these tales fostered Edwards' development of a nonrealist world of imagery and symbolism in her own language. The ten stories of Rhapsody are utterly distinctive in voice and sensibility. At least three of the Rhapsody stories��"A Country House," "Days," and the brilliant, enigmatic "A Garland of Earth"—are small masterpieces sure to by enjoyed by a whole new generation.

How much of ourselves must we give up to help a friend in need? Helen has little idea what lies ahead—and what strength she must muster—when she offers her spare room to an old friend, Nicola, who has arrived in the city for cancer treatment. Skeptical of the medical establishment, and placing all her faith in an alternative health center, Nicola is determined to find her own way to deal with her illness, regardless of the advice Helen offers.

In the weeks that follow, Nicola’s battle for survival will turn not only her own life upside down but also those of everyone around her. The Spare Room is a magical gem of a book—gripping, moving, and unexpectedly funny—that packs a huge punch, charting a friendship as it is tested by the threat of death.