cover image Family Dins and Other Stories

Family Dins and Other Stories

William Trevor. Penguin Books, $10 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-14-015429-0

Trevor's characters seem resigned to the bleak fates they themselves have arranged: here, a daughter's virtue is traded for a bit of land and a seemingly happy union proves to have had grim origins. ``A dozen stories . . . examine an exquisite spectrum of human vagaries and foibles,'' said PW. ``One of the great short story writers of our age holds his own, turning out gem after gem.'' (Sept.)