Reading Turgenev (from Two Lives)
Synopsis
Young, ingenuous Mary Louise Dallon, fearful of being trapped in her parents’ cramped farmhouse, cannot resist the limited attractions of the nearby small town, and marries into it only to discover a despair and desolation that her sheltered girlhood had not exposed her to. When she is rescued, it is not by a stalwart lover but by a bespectacled boy in poor health who reads her Turgenev in a deserted country churchyard.
Author Biography
William Trevor was born in 1928, County Cork, and spent his childhood in provincial Ireland. 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 has written many novels and was awarded an honorary CBE in recognition of his valuable services to literature in 1977. In 1999 he received the prestigious David Cohen British Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime’s literary achievements. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, and is a member of the Irish Academy of Letters.
