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Bernard MacLaverty

Biography

Bernard MacLaverty

Bernard MacLaverty is the author of seven collections of stories and five novels, including GRACE NOTES, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and MIDWINTER BREAK, shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Born in Ireland, he now lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

Bernard MacLaverty

Books by Bernard MacLaverty

by Bernard MacLaverty - Fiction, Short Stories

Tinged with melancholy but rooted in resiliency, the exquisite stories in Bernard MacLaverty’s BLANK PAGES display the perseverance of the human spirit. In “A Love Picture,” a middle-aged woman, already no stranger to loss, consults a World War II newsreel to determine the fate of her son. “Blackthorns” tells of a poor, out-of-work Catholic man who falls gravely ill in the sectarian Northern Ireland of 1942 but is brought back from the brink by an unlikely savior. The harrowing but transcendent “The End of Days” imagines life in another pandemic as artist Egon Schiele and his wife, both stricken with the Spanish flu, spend their final days together. And in the poignant title story, an elderly writer takes stock of what remains after losing his life partner.

by Bernard MacLaverty - Fiction

A retired couple, Gerry and Stella Gilmore, fly from their home in Scotland to Amsterdam for a long weekend. But over the course of these four days, we discover the deep uncertainties that exist between them. Gerry, once an architect, is forgetful and set in his ways. Stella is tired of his lifestyle, worried about their marriage, and angry at his constant undermining of her religious faith. Things are not helped by memories that have begun to resurface of a troubled time in their native Ireland. As their midwinter break comes to an end, we understand how far apart they are --- and can only watch as they struggle to save themselves.