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Published Sep 2008
320 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
Winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize, Anne Enright's novel The Gathering went on to become a national best seller acclaimed for its electrifying prose and haunting emotional resonance. Now, in Yesterday's Weather, Enright presents a series of deeply moving glimpses into a rapidly changing Ireland: a land of family and tradition, but also, increasingly, of organic radicchio, cruise-ship vacations, and casual betrayals.
An artisan farmer seethes at the patronage of a former Catholic-school classmate, now a successful restaurateur; a bride cuckolds her rich husband with an old college friend—a madman who won't take his pills, disappears for weeks at a time, and plays the piano like a dream. Still more startling than loss or deception are the ways in which people respond to them: a wife eaten up by rage at her husband's infidelity must weigh the real stakes after his affair takes a tragic turn; confronted with a similar situation, a woman decides to cheat with, rather than against, her man.
Sharp, tender, never predictable, the sum of these stories is a rich tapestry of people struggling to find contentment with one another—and with themselves.
"Starred Review. She shows her readers how opportunities for grace emerge from the humdrum details and obsessive crises that make up our lives, and as such, she is one of the most distinctive and necessary authors writing today." - Library Journal.
"[B]ut too often Enright's characters - more often than not female, first-person narrators - bleed into one another until their stories become jumbled in the reader's mind." - Publishers Weekly.
"Another tour de force from a writer whose voice and perspective mark her as one of the cherishable talents of our era." - Kirkus Reviews.
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Photo: Hugo Chaloner
Anne Enright is author of seven novels, most recently Actress. She has been awarded the Man Booker Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. She lives in Dublin.
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