Author:William Trevor
The Boarding House by William Trevor - a darkly comic novel by one of the world's best writers
William Bird has always taken in boarders who are on the fringes of society: the petty conman, the immigrant who's never been able to fit in, the blustering officer who really doesn't know what's what , and the just plain lonely. He's built a unique place with a unique atmosphere. But then he realizes he's dying, and he decides to leave the place to the two tenants likely to cause the greatest amount of trouble, and the whole enterprise goes up in smoke.
William Trevor's dark comedy, reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark, was his second novel.
'Trevor has the knack of slicing life so that it reveals lower layers we have not suspected' Daily Mail
'He tells you the most outrageous things in a most pleasant manner, hardly ever raising his voice' Guardian
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 recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.
A work of art...Edric is one of the most remarkable novelists writing today
—— Allan Massie , The ScotsmanStunning and ambitious...Edric enters fully the mind and inner life of his dissolute (anti-)hero. It would be so easy to fall into pastiche, but a writer as good as he is, is pitch perfect. The reader is encouraged to savour the prose, to absorb the atmosphere and to enter the eerie world of Haworth and its inhabitants.
Edric's portrait of the Reverend Patrick Bronte is masterly and poignant. Branwell's close relationship with Emily, the love he feels for consumptive Anne and the disintegration of his bond with Charlotte who looks on him with resentment and hostility are vividly explored...A moving and imaginatively reconstructed portrait
The book succeeds in poetically entering into the destructive world of a young man of modest talent who finds himself born into a household of genius
—— Jane Jakeman , Independent on SundayRobert Edric has written some of the most interesting and diverse historical fiction of the past thirty years...Edric eschews a conventional plot in favour of vividly realised scenes that build up an extraordinary portrait of a man lurching towards self-destruction
—— Nick Rennison , Sunday TimesA story which could have emerged from a Bronte novel. A man haunted by his failures is trapped by the secrets of a sequestered household and drawn to his own decline in flinty, lilting prose...A beautiful re-imagining
—— MetroA wonderfully edgy piece of wartime noir
—— D.J. Taylor , IndependentMacabre twists keep the pages turning
—— James Urquhart , Financial TimesA masterly, highly evocative, multi-layered tale
—— Mail on Sunday (Eire)Fabulously atmospheric
—— BooksellerEdric's world, though often unsavoury, is also curiously compelling. Lured into its shady precincts, you're unlikely to want to leave.
—— David Grylls , Sunday TimesA darkly disturbing novel
—— Hull Daily MailA terrifying, yet grimly realistic portrait of near-future America
—— Brechin AdvertiserThought-provoking, and at times brutal, this thriller will surely be the basis of many discussions about the nature of society and the times we live in
—— Irish ExaminerPeyton Marshall is a writer of intelligence and keen observation with a great future. GOODHOUSE is a startling debut. In James, she has created a compelling and convincing hero for the all-too-probable dark times ahead
—— A L KENNEDYVery arty, and strangely uplifting
—— Evening StandardHilarious, loving and deadly serious
—— Berlingske TidendeSome pieces of literature, no matter how great an effort you make as a critic, cannot be opened or captured in a way that does justice to the work. That’s how I feel about Helle Helle’s new and unusually precious novel... Most of the sentences are small works of art, containing a whole story in themselves
—— WeekendavisenThis Should be Written in the Present Tense is an excellent novel, yet another sleek and nonchalant masterpiece from Helle Helle
—— InformationHelle Helle has written a captivating novel about Dorte Hansen, who sleepwalks through life, letting chance rule
—— PolitikenA beautiful tale examining the processes of life
—— Good Book GuideEschewing a conventional narrative, this absorbing novel deceptively contains a crackling energy within its understated, artful prose
—— Francesca Angelini , Sunday Times
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