Book review: Love And Summer

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 10:52

Love And Summer by William Trevor is published by Viking, priced £18.99.

In the slow-paced, homely Irish town of Rathmoye, the shadows of the past lurk round every corner.

A love affair bitterly remembered, the burnt-out shell of the town's cinema preserved in its destruction, a grand house still alive in the eyes of its former librarian, the farmer's wife and child killed in an accident, the influence of an overbearing mother – all exert their brooding force on the present.

Over the course of a glorious summer, the passion felt by Ellie, the farmer's gentle second wife, for newcomer Florian is similarly hidden – except from Miss Connulty, who knows the joy and pain of such secrets first hand.

But Florian wants to put his ghosts to rest, and dreams of a new life away from Ireland.

Trevor paints a beautiful picture of the everyday thrills, warmth and pain so scarcely talked about but ever-present, the hidden stories behind the most mundane of lives.

8/10 Review by Claire Ennis