In this final collection of ten exquisite, perceptive and profound stories, William Trevor probes into the depths of the human spirit. Here we encounter a tutor and his pupil, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when they meet again years later; a young girl who discovers the mother she believed dead is alive and well; and a piano-teacher who accepts her pupil's theft in exchange for his beautiful music.

'Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling' Hilary Mantel

'He is one of the great short-story writers, at his best the equal of Chekhov' John Banville

'The greatest living writer of short stories in the English language' New Yorker

'What a writer he was; he could flip over a sentence so gently, and show the underbelly in a heartbeat. His work is always quietly compassionate' Elizabeth Strout