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A Bit on the Side: Stories Audiobook
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(3.03) - 446 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
William Trevor is truly a Chekhov for our age, and a new collection of stories from him is always a cause for celebration. These twelve stories include:
The waiter who divulges his shocking life of crime to his ex-wife.
A woman repeats the story of her parents' unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy.
The schoolgirl who regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her.
A middle-aged couple meet in a theatre bar for a squalid blind date.
The disappointed priest who fears an innocent young girl may run away from home.
Two self-certain sisters visit a newly widowed local woman.
And, in the volume's title story, a middle-age accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair.
From these slender moments Trevor creates whole lives, conjuring up characters marked by bitterness and loss. William Trevor's graceful prose is a wonder in itself, and as convincing when inhabiting the mind of a school lunchmaid, an adulterous Irish country librarian or a murderer on the London streets. And as is always the case with William Trevor, venom and tragedy are never far from the still surface of the stories.
At the heart of this stunning collection is Trevor's characteristic tenderness and unflinching eye for both the humanizing and dehumanizing aspects of modern urban and rural life.
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"Reading William Trevor is like coming back home to a warm fire and a pair of comfy slippers. He is a gifted story teller, especially of short stories; less is more. He crafts his characters, both phsyically and psychologically, and their emotions, using the fewest number of words possible. He moves easily from Ireland to England, but his turns of phrase and use of idioms and vernacular leave the reader in no doubt where each story is set. In stories like 'Justina's Priest' he has no need to explain that she is backward; he has already made that clear to the reader without needing to spell it out. You find yourself under the skins of many of the characters, sometimes they arouse sympathy, sometimes annoyance and sometimes just pity. But the effect, as with many of his other stories, both short and long, is of a modern day Chekhov. You experience an ache and a longing for what has been missed or what could have been avoided."
— Sandra (4 out of 5 stars)
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Matching [the] superb writing is the narration by Simon Vance and Josephine Bailey. Both tread delicately through the minefield of emotions just under the surface in each story. The result is bittersweet and tender.
— Audiobookcafe.com
A Bit on the Side Listener Reviews
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" A very intriguing collection of short stories. The narrations are thoughtful and insightful. The characters are well crafted and I loved the interactions between them all. "
— Eldra, 2/10/2014 -
" Another good effort - lots of feelings are packed into these stories that read like novels. "
— Wilhelmina, 1/20/2014 -
" Finding William Trevor is like finding a new friend. I had no idea who he was and now I don't know what I would do without him. He's a genius. His writing is so eloquent and well crafted. Each story is so unique and so well executed. Reading his stories is like unwrapping a present. There is an air of mystery, he is telling a story but you know there is so much more going on under the surface. He manages to weave flash backs and different time sequences effortlessly into his plots. He's amazing and he's coming out with a new book this fall at 81 years old. "
— Kristiana, 1/15/2014 -
" good, old world short sotries "
— Tuck, 1/6/2014 -
" A truly great short story writer. There are some beautiful (though sad) stories in this collection. "
— Karen, 1/5/2014 -
" At its best, this collection draws a clear line from Joyce's Dubliners-- subtle character studies and achingly human moments. Even in its less perfect stories it's well-crafted, empathetic, and entertaining. "
— Jesse, 12/13/2013 -
" I have never been a great reader of short stories, but a friend recommended this then SENT her book to me. I felt like I had to read it. I loved it. Almost every story got me w/in a few sentences. You get a whole book in a few pages! Compelling stories told in a compact fashion. Who knew? "
— Kathryn, 11/21/2013 -
" Incredibly (and depressingly) Irish - the first story is gorgeous, the last uninteresting. "
— Sabine, 10/30/2013 -
" I'm sure these are wonderful stories, literary and all, but they did not appeal to me. "
— Squeaky, 10/27/2013 -
" Trevor is a master craftsman, but lots of these stories are very cold at heart - likely intentionally so but he is a writer who is a bit hard to truly love. "
— Kirsten, 10/9/2013 -
" I love William Trevor's writing... "
— Anne, 6/1/2013
About William Trevor
William Trevor is the author of nearly
thirty books, including Felicia’s Journey,
which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and was made into a major motion
picture. In 1996 he was the recipient of the Lannan Award for Fiction, and in
2001 he won the Irish Times Literature Prize for Fiction. Two of his books were
chosen by the New York Times as best
books of the year, and his short stories appear regularly in the New Yorker. In
1997 he was named Honorary Commander of the British Empire. He lives in Devon,
England.
About Josephine Bailey
Josephine Bailey’s impeccable narrations include the British classics Jane Eyre and The Secret Garden. She has also used her subtly nuanced style to enliven historical fiction and light romances. She has won nine AudioFile Earphones Awards and been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award.