William Trevor and Tom Drury.

威廉·崔佛和汤姆·杜瑞。

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Yet while this quiet tale of missed opportunities might scan as tragic in the hands of, say, William Trevor, Ms Simpson succeeds only in making it exceptionally dull.

ECONOMIST: New fiction

That spends longer on its character's time as a child and subsequently conveys what it feels to be a young girl more deeply, more convincingly than William Trevor's tale.

BBC: Trevor's tragic tale

William Trevor zooms through the years from 1920s Ireland, when landowners were being driven out of the country, up to the edge of the present day with references to the internet.

BBC: Trevor's tragic tale