Quiet, detached and yet invariably unnervingly alert to the small cruelties of existence, William Trevor remains a master storyteller. More celebrated in Britain than in Ireland, he is a sophisticated observer who nonetheless can capture grief and loss in a phrase and has never quite lost touch with the various faces of his native culture. Deservedly winner of the 1994 Whitbread Book of the Year award, this novel - which has been re-issued because of Atom Egoyan's screen version - characteristically creeps up upon the reader. What at first appears a traditional, almost routine, tale of a wronged young girl who flees rural Ireland in order to share her news with her lover, develops into a sinister tale of innocence corrupted and a modern amoral society. While tracking the worthless Johnny, Felicia travels across the bleakest of landscapes, that of the industrialised English midlands. The characterisation of the repulsive Mr Hilditch is chillingly exact. Trevor has always observed and, unlike many novelists, he also listens. Not a false note is heard in this powerful novel, one of his finest.
