Three Early Novels: The Old Boys, the Boarding-House, the Love Department Paperback - 2000

From the publisher

William Trevor's Last Stories is forthcoming from Viking. Three novels by "a master craftsman and a deep creative talent."--The Times (London) In his first novel, The Old Boys, a group of septuagenarians revive schoolboy conflicts in the election of the President of the Association. Now, however, the men possess a fiercer understanding of the things in life that matter--power, revenge, hatred, love, and the failure of love--and intrigue and deceit result. In The Boarding House, William Wagner Bird takes in boarders whom society would never miss--if it ever noticed they were around. With these misfits, Bird creates a world where people are identified by their quirks rather than by their character. Then he makes a fatal mistake: He dies. From the offices of The Love Department, Lady Dolores cures the heartaches of the lonely wives of Wimbledon with inimitable flourish and finesse. When the newest protg, Edward Blakeston-Smith, is sent on a mission--to learn the secrets of seductive, scheming Septimus Tuam and stop him in his tracks--he learns about love and its friends and enemies. In these early novels, one of the acclaimed masters of twentieth-century fiction created the dark landscape and compassionate characters that have become hallmarks of his extraordinary career. "One of the very best writers of our era."--The Washington Post Book World "Mr. Trevor's sheer intensity of entry into the lives of his people . . . proceeds to uncover new layers of yearning and pain, new angles of vision and credible thought."--The New York Times Book Review

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