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Blank Pages and Other Stories Bernard MacLaverty

Blank Pages and Other Stories By Bernard MacLaverty

Blank Pages and Other Stories by Bernard MacLaverty


$17,49
Condition - Very Good
5 in stock

Blank Pages and Other Stories Summary

Blank Pages and Other Stories by Bernard MacLaverty

The extraordinary new story collection from one of Ireland's greatest writers and bestselling author of Mindwinter Break.

Bernard MacLaverty is a consummately gifted short-story writer and novelist whose work - like that of John McGahern, William Trevor, Edna O'Brien or Colm Toibin - is deceptively simple on the surface, but carries a turbulent undertow. Everywhere, the dark currents of violence, persecution and regret pull at his subject matter: family love, the making of art, Catholicism, the Troubles and, latterly, ageing.

Blank Pages is a collection of twelve extraordinary new stories that show the emotional range of a master. 'Blackthorns', for instance, tells of a poor out-of-work Catholic man who falls gravely ill in the sectarian Northern Ireland of 1942 but is brought back from the brink by an unlikely saviour. The most recently written story here is the harrowing but transcendent 'The End of Days', which imagines the last moments in the life of painter Egon Schiele, watching his wife dying of Spanish flu - the world's worst pandemic, until now.

Much of what MacLaverty writes is an amalgam of sadness and joy, of circumlocution and directness. He never wastes words but neither does he ever forget to make them sing. Each story he writes creates a universe.

Blank Pages and Other Stories Reviews

MacLaverty locates the precise point where life bleeds into art, and art into life. Even in the briefest of his stories his themes emerge slowly, unforced, as if pondering themselves; like the best writers through the ages, he is confident and questioning, engaged and wise. -- Hilary Mantel
I can't think of another living writer whose attention to the small acts and seemingly inconsequential details of our lives unlocks so much emotional truth. Like Chekhov, MacLaverty writes as though everything is happening in front of our eyes, revealing, in story after story and in prose as clear as glass, the ineffable in the everyday. -- Carys Davies
Tragic, poignant, loving and often devastating in their truthfulness, peel back the seemingly placid surfaces of these beautifully conceived and sculpted stories and you'll find all the trials of the world laid bare. Blank Pages and Other Stories is a stunning achievement. Bernard MacLaverty is undoubtedly one of the finest and most gifted writers at work today, and in terms of the short story he has no better, and perhaps only a few equals. This is craft honed across a lifetime to utmost mastery, and work that sets a towering benchmark. An exquisite collection. -- Billy O'Callaghan
Masterly -- Ian Rankin
Bernard MacLaverty is a master of the second sort of story, writing it better than almost anyone else. By that I mean I can't think of anyone who does it better, not even Alice Munro, one of the few to have won the Nobel for a body of work principally composed of short stories. MacLaverty could well follow her. -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *

About Bernard MacLaverty

Bernard MacLaverty lives in Glasgow. He has written five previous collections of stories and five novels, including Grace Notes, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Midwinter Break, the Bord Gais Energy Irish Novel of the Year. He has written versions of his fiction for other media - radio and television plays, screenplays and libretti.

Additional information

GOR011663829
9781787333154
1787333159
Blank Pages and Other Stories by Bernard MacLaverty
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Vintage Publishing
20210805
272
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Blank Pages and Other Stories