List $19.99

Written by William Trevor - Audio book performed by Josephine Bailey & Simon Vance - Unabridged Fiction - 1 MP3 COMPACT DISC - 6 hours, 38 minutes

Publisher, Tantor Media (October 2004)

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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.

About the Author: William Trevor is the author of twenty-nine books, including Felicia's Journey, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and was made into a motion picture. In 1996 he was the recipient of the Lannan Award for Fiction. 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.

He was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and spent his childhood in provincial Ireland. He attended a number of Irish schools and Trinity College, Dublin. He is a member of the Irish Academy of Letters, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most recent novel is The Story of Lucy Gault, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2002 and a New York Times Notable Book.

About the Performers: Publishers Weekly named Josephine Bailey "best female narrator" in 2002. Her native British accent has been used in many audio books and voice over including "The Wild Thornberries", "Uncle Gus", and Disney-Dreamworks projects. In additions to her award winning voice, Josephine is also involved in television, film, and theatre. On television she has played parts in "Robin Hood", "Tale of Two Cities", and "Sword of Freedom". In film she was featured in "Shadow Hours", "Life's a Circus" and "Corridors of Blood". Her theatre experience includes lead roles in "Betrayal", "Otherwise Engaged" and "Blithe Spirit". Josephine received her training from Corona Stage School in London. Josephine resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Earphones Awards recipient Simon Vance was born in England and worked for the BBC for ten years as a radio news announcer and also worked as a narrator for the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London. In addition to narrating for Blackstone Audiobooks, he involves himself in numerous stage-acting projects in the United States and Europe.