Synopses & Reviews
For the first time all of Bernard MacLavertys unforgettable short stories are gathered together, with a new introduction by the author Melding his native Irish sensibilities to those of his adopted west-coast Scotland, these tales attend to lifes big events: love and loss, separation and violence, death and betrayal. But the stories teem with smaller significant moments too—private epiphanies, chilling exchanges, intimate encounters. Each of these extraordinary stories—with their wry, self-deprecating humor, their elegance, and subtle wisdom—gets to the very heart of life. Since the publication of Secrets and Other Stories in 1977, Bernard MacLaverty has been celebrated as one of the finest living short-story writers. Writing in the New York Times, William Boyd summoned the shades of Yeats, Joyce, and Flann O'Brien, insisting that "MacLaverty sits perfectly comfortably" in their company.
Review
"It is a work in the classical tradition of the novel; and it has all the beauty and moral seriousness of the form at its best." Allan Massie
Synopsis
When it was first published, Bernard MacLaverty's fiction masterpiece was hailed by Michael Gorra in the as "a marvel of technical perfection. . . . Cal is a most moving novel whose emotional impact is grounded in a complete avoidance of sentimentality. . . . [It] will become the ." For Cal, a Belfast teenager who, against his will, is involved in the terrible war between Catholics and Protestants, some of the choices are devastatingly simple: he can work in the slaughterhouse that nauseates him or join the dole queue; he can brood on his past or plan a future with the beautiful, widowed Marcella for whose grief he shares more than a little responsibility.
Synopsis
"Bernard MacLaverty's powerful novel is a love story as affecting and tragic as you could want."--
About the Author
Bernard MacLaverty has published five collections of short stories—The Great Profondo, Matters of Life & Death, Secrets, A Time to Dance, and Walking the Dog—and four novels: The Anatomy School, Cal, Grace Notes, and Lamb, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. He has written for radio, television, and screen. His short film Bye Child won a BAFTA.