Mary Lavin

Regina López Muñoz

Felicidad

Miss Lavin's six stories all have Ireland as a setting and tell of delicate human relationships. A woman farmer, recently widowed, has an encounter with a neighbour; a fading beauty is courted and won by a man she has loved for many years; the nursing of a sick man in his final illness and the cost to his daughters; two students who meet and talk in Dublin; an inconclusive affair between a young man and an older woman; the antagonastic relationship between two people forced by circumstances to live under same roof.

In the Middle of the Fields, and Other Stories

Five short stories set in Ireland. As in "Happiness", where a young widow defies local conventions in her determination to be happy, the central themes are concern for the survival of the human spirit, and the right of the individual to decide moral issues in the light of private conscience. a characteristic of the author's work is her ability to move successfully from tragedy to humane farce, often within the same story.

Happiness, and Other Stories

Set in Ireland about a boy named Packy and his mother who lived in a little cottage. Though his mother complained about the state of their cottage, he was not prepared to agree to the proposal made to him in the woods by a strange gentlemen dressed in green.

A Likely Story

Mary O'Grady

On an island teeming with masters of the short story, Mary Lavin's distinct voice and devoted following set her apart. Before her death in 1996, this Irish writer had received many honors and prizes not only for her luminous short stories but also for several highly regarded novels. William Trevor praised Lavin's ability to "make moments timeless, to illuminate people and places, words and things, by touching them with the magic of the rarely-gifted storyteller." In a Cafe makes available for the first time in the United States a collection of her most beloved pieces as compiled by her daughter. In masterworks such as the title story, an unsettling portrayal of widowhood, and "The Will, " which Layin considered the finest expression of her art, the justice in Trevor's declaration we recognize that "the short story of today owes her a very great debt."

Selected Stories

In a Cafe

The Becker Wives and Other Stories

Three children take a trip around the world to give their parents a rest from taking care of them.

Mary Lavin

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