تنهایی الیزابت

by William Trevor, فرناز حائری (Translator)

هنری عقربهٔ دقیقه‌شمار ساعت روی دیوار را تماشا کرد. در سراسر لندن، در سراسر دنیا، عقربه‌ها دقیقاَ با سرعتی یکسان حرکت می‌کردند، بی‌اینکه هیچ‌کدام از دیگری جلو بزنند…

ویلیام ترور را نه می‌توان روان‌شناس خواند نه کارآگاه، اما می‌توان گفت که خصلت‌های هر دو را دارد. او در این رمان بستری‌شدن چهار زن را در بخش چهار اتاقهٔ «بیمارستان زنانهٔ لیدی اوگاستا هپتری» بهانه قرار می‌دهد تا در زندگی‌شان سرک بکشد و از بیم‌ها و شکست‌ها، رازها و کابوس‌هایشان بگوید. ترور عاشق شخصیت‌هایی است که جامعه به آنها پشت کرده، انها که نه به موفقیت دندان‌گیری دست یافته‌اند نه دیگر جوانی و زیبایی برگ برنده‌شان است.
ترور در این رمان تصویری واضح و پر از جزئیات از زندگی در لندن دههٔ هفتاد میلادی ارائه می‌دهد.

جولین بارنز دربارهٔ ترور می‌گوید: «… ویلیام ترور نه یکی از چخوف‌های ایرلند است نه حتی تنها چخوف ایرلند. او ویلیام ترور ایرلند بود و خواهد ماند.»

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Literary Fiction, Ireland, Classics, 20th Century, European Literature

615 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

William Trevor, KBE grew up in various provincial towns and attended a number of schools, graduating from Trinity College, in Dublin, with a degree in history. He first exercised his artistry as a sculptor, working as a teacher in Northern Ireland and then emigrated to England in search of work when the school went bankrupt. He could have returned to Ireland once he became a successful writer, he said, "but by then I had become a wanderer, and one way and another, I just stayed in England ... I hated leaving Ireland. I was very bitter at the time. But, had it not happened, I think I might never have written at all."

In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.

Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.

Reviews

[Julie G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've started a project of reading books from the 1970s as my own personal coping mechanism for the current day, and it was pretty random that I stumbled upon this one, Elizabeth Alone, so quickly. I knew nothing about this novel or the author, William Trevor, but I liked the publication date of 1973, and I liked the title.

Yet the title doesn't really do this story justice, as it's not really about Elizabeth being alone, is it?

It is, instead, an ensemble cast of characters we are introduced to, almost immediately, a small group of women who have been admitted “to hospital” for various gynecological grievances, most of them resulting in hysterectomies. A modern woman might be miffed at some of the casual reasons some of these women are being cut open, but I was advised to get a hysterectomy as recently as last year, in response to my complaints of experiencing an incredibly long peri-menopause. I didn't need one, and I didn't choose to have one, but I have learned that knee-jerk solutions to gynecological issues weren't left behind in the 1970s.

When 41-year-old Elizabeth Aidallbery divorces her husband, she is advised that a hysterectomy will make her “feel better,” (you know. . . maybe she'll feel less hysterical). Elizabeth is not an advocate for her health, and she figures, “her womb, at forty-one, might well not be up to its purpose. . . its removal was probably neither here nor there.” Might as well get one as not.

“In hospital,” Elizabeth is placed in a ward with a woman named Lily Drucker, who has had 4 miscarriages and hasn't been able to bring a pregnancy to full-term, a 25-year-old woman named Sylvie Clapper, who has something that seems like endometriosis, and a woman named Miss Sampson whose reasons for having a hysterectomy are as vague as Elizabeth's.

And here's the true beauty of this book: as we come to know the backstories of these four women in the ward, we realize that they represent all types, for the most part. We come to know them as they are cut open, sewn back together, and struggle to swim through a sea of anesthesia to seek the shore again; they are all people, they are all of us. It is all here.

In case you have the impression in this moment that this is a woman's story or a story about only women, let me clarify: men have roles here as significant as the women. If these women are the constant points on their hospital beds, the men orbit around them and are as equally fascinating.

This book grabbed me by the ear immediately and had my attention at a time when it is incredibly challenging for me to focus on much of anything.

Every time I started reading, I fell through space and time to this little hospital ward in 1973, England, and it was the only place I wanted to be.

To me, William Trevor's writing, in this novel, is as good as Graham Greene's, Penelope Lively's, and John Williams's. Do you get it? Do you understand now how good this is?

I have a new favorite author. Rejoice, rejoice: life hands us gifts, when we least expect them!

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 3 out of 5]

در کتاب تنهایی الیزابت نوشته ویلیام ترور ، بستری شدن الیزابت در بیمارستان و آشنا شدن او با سه زن دیگر از طبقات مختلف جامعه انگلستان دهه 70 ، به نویسنده ، آقای ترور مجالی می دهد که به زندگی پیچیده زنان و چالش های آنان نگاهی انداخته و گذشته و حال و آینده آنان را تا جایی که می توان حدس زد ، ترسیم کند .
کتاب احتمالا به منظور آشنایی خواننده با فرهنگ انگلستان سرشار از جزییات در همه امور است ، نکاتی مانند غذا خوردن و نام و حتی مواد تشکیل دهنده آن ، نوشیدنی ها ، کافه ها و بارها و فرهنگ افراد حاکم بر آن ، وضعیت اقتصادی ، طبقات مختلف جامعه ، و انبوه جزییات دیگر فضای لندن آن زمان را به خوبی ترسیم می کند .
قهرمانان این کتاب چهار زن هستند که هر کدام در روابط عاطفی یا پرورش فرزندان یا مدیریت زندگی خود به گونه ای در مانده و هرکدام به نوعی در بن بست و بحران گرفتار شده اند . باوجود تفاوت در جنس این بحران ها ، همه این زنان یک درد مشترک دارند ، آنان همه به نوعی بازنده بوده و هستند ، حتی افرادی که با آنان در ارتباط هستند هم شکست خورده هستند ، چه پدر و مادر باشند ، چه دوست نزدیک و چه فرزند .
با وجود آنکه شخصیت های اصلی داستان همگی زن و بیشتر داستان به شرح زندگی و عموما ناکامی های آنان می گذرد ، اما در کنار آن تیپ های مختلفی از مردان ناموفق ، دروغگو ، دزد و شارلاتان ، تحت تاثیر خانواده و پدر و مادر ، بی مسئولیت و بی کفایت را هم می بینیم که صفات منفی آنان در برخورد با زنان داستان به نوعی فاجعه آفریده و زندگی را چنان تحت تاثیر قرار داده که بازسازی آن بسیار مشکل یا حتی محال به نظر می رسد .

هنر ویلیام ترور در کتاب تنهایی الیزابت ، بی داستان بودن آن و عملا آفریدن کتاب از هیچ می باشد ، اما باید اعتراف کرد که کتاب در بخشهایی ریتم و سرعت لازم را ندارد . در اواسط کتاب جزییات آن کم کم حوصله خواننده را سر برده و مشکلات شخصیتهای آن تکراری می شود . داستان آن یکنواخت و آرام جلو می رود و هیچ نقطه اوجی ندارد .
با تمام شدن دوران نقاهت و آزاد شدن از بیمارستان ، الیزابت به همراه سه خانم دیگر به زندگی پر آشوب خود باز می گردند ، زندگی که با همان کیفیت و با همان مشکلات همیشگی وجود داشته و وجود خواهد داشت .

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be in a rush when you read this book. You can't be. It's dense, it's rich, it has many many characters, it demands a fair bit from you on a paragraph-to-paragraph level. It even makes you read through pages of dream sequences, something I discovered I have very little patience for. And the plot isn't too plotty as plots go.

However, readers of literary fiction will reap rewards a-plenty -- that is, once you've determined to sit and behave as though smart phones don't exist and that your brain isn't used to jettisoning around from one thing to the next, ingesting sound bytes and quick takes and flashy visuals.

This quiet gem takes place in a hospital with a group of women in for gynaecological procedures; an unlikely story for William Trevor to take on? But it's also more than that, because each of the women have men and/or family members he zeroes in on too, so the story is tremendously full, round, pregnant with meaning and context. And it delivers.

Elizabeth, as the title suggests, is "alone". She's divorced and single, after the end of a short-lived affair. But she isn't the only character making her way independently. The men and women in this world Trevor has uncovered are marginalized, lonely, impoverished, disfigured. One of them, Henry, is so tragically failing at life, and so innocently bewildered at his failure, my heart broke in this reading (and it also swelled with intense admiration... William Trevor, what a master).

I couldn't help but see a universality to this "alone" state, and understood Trevor's exploration and questioning.

Complex and melancholic, and well worth slowing down for. (The Children of Dynmouth is still my favourite by this author, though....)

[sAmAnE · Rating 3 out of 5]

داستان معمولی و قشنگی داشت.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Trevor doesn't need a plot. He makes do with little plots. Quotidian plots. People drink Ovaltine or a Nescafé. They'll have a Fray Bentos steak-and-kidney pie, Bird's Eye peas, and a packet of raspberry mousse. They marry; they misjudge. Men boast, fudge. Women hope, rue.

Three women enter the Cheltenham Street Women's Hospital, there for hysterectomies. There is Miss Samson, facially disfigured at birth. And Sylvia Clapper, with false teeth, and a low criminal boyfriend. There is also the eponymous Elizabeth, recently divorced (her adultery) with three daughters. They join little Lily Drucker, who had miscarried again and again, and now is on bedrest, pregnant again.

There is a large cast of characters who surround them.

I read this, a sometimes literal reader, with the title in my head. Elizabeth Alone. But Elizabeth was not alone. Yes, her husband left her (that infidelity), and the paramour did not take his place. But she had the children, and friends, and a devotee in the hapless Henry, a fatally flawed character who loved her.

It was Miss Samson who was truly alone, who would always be alone. She fantasized a love for Mr. Irbbs, a religious man who created the home where she lived. But Miss Samson read his posthumous journal and found his doubt.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

'I'm sorry about Henry,' Lily tells Elizabeth.
'If he'd lived I'd probably have married him.'
'But Elizabeth, you didn't even love him. You couldn't have sacrificed yourself for a failure of a man.'
'I sacrificed myself for a success of a man.'
'But you loved him in the beginning.'
'In the end it didn't matter.'
'But why on earth would you have thrown yourself away again?'
'Because it's lonely when you're forty-one and your children are rowdily growing up . . . I've never been much good at being alone.'

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

I write this tonight after another mass tragedy had occurred, this time in my city. I was alone then; not now. Large things might not touch as much as small things might.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

So, Miss Samson, the one character who was truly alone, stirred her cold Nescafé. A small thing. A thing alone. She blew her nose:

'I make do,' she said. 'The doubt comes, and then it goes away again. At least it goes away. There's that to be cheerful about.'

[Sana · Rating 2 out of 5]

از روی عنوان کتاب فکر کردم قراره دوسش داشته باشم اما برخلاف تصورم اصلا دوستش نداشتم.
خیلی حوصله سربر بود و به زور تمومش کردم.

[Negar Afsharmanesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب رو دوست داشتم، درسته داستان بلند داشت اما جذاب بود و یکنواخت نبود.
شخصیت اصلی کتاب الیزابت، زنی چهل و یک ساله هست که به خاطر افسردگی ای که داره وارد بیمارستان میشه و اونجا هم با چند زن دیگه هم اتاق میشه که کتاب، داستان زندگی همه این زنان رو بیان میکنه،
بیمارستان رو برای این نویسنده به کاربرده تا بتونه زنان از طبقه اجتماعی متفاوت رو کنار هم قرار بده و یه جورایی زندگیشون رو بتونه مقایسه کنه.
داستان زندگی زنان و مشکلات اون ها در دهه هفتاد رو نشون داده کامل.

[Karen·]

All the loveliness has gone

The Cheltenham Street Women's Hospital seems almost too convenient a device for Mr. Trevor to bring together women who would never meet in their normal lives, divided as they are by class and all that entails; upbringing, accent, background, income, interests and concerns. Thrown together by gynaecology. And as each one of the four women's circle of friends and family is opened before our eyes, as we catch glimpses of the nurses and doctors and even the porters and caretaker in the hospital, and wonder at Trevor's capacity to invent names and yet more names, almost to the point of being overwhelmed by Ibbs, Pidsley, Thring, Rinsal, Bastable, Antler, Rammage, Passes, Hopegood, Feuchtwanger, Middlesmith, Giltrap, Pengelly, Proctor, Frowen, Vendericks, Pennance, O'Keeffe, Emamooden, Tracy, Hobson, Mars, Studdard - and those are just the minor characters - there comes a creeping doubt to the mind. What is Mr. Trevor up to?
Watch out for the woman without a name, the one who runs a red thread through the multiple narratives, who parades up and down in front of the hospital with her banner: Liberation Now.
For this is a story of awakening, more or less rudely, more or less successfully, to the idea that magical thinking will not do. Miss Samson has lost her faith in the fatherly male figure up in the sky, the other women lose faith in the male figures down on earth, for they are feckless and hopeless and weak, and only shored up by those of the female persuasion who are foolish enough to fall for their dubious charms.

And Elizabeth.

She steers past what would have been a disastrous second marriage (with catastrophic consequences to her gentle refusal), but comes to the realisation that her first husband was no better than flimsy, forceless Henry:

He was more of a failure than Henry. Everything went wrong for people like Henry, while other people efficiently laid out their lives like maps in front of them, covering each mistake artistically up, employing guile. He'd married her and he'd hidden his shortcomings beneath hers. He'd drawn hers out, so that in their marriage her shortcomings gathered strength, and stood in the end as an element that was a daily stumbling block. Looking back on it now, she knew he couldn't have done without the irritation of her shortcomings. She was to blame, she had done wrong, it was her fault.
He had taught her all that in their marriage. He had made her the woman she was at forty-one. For ever she'd carry the influence he'd left with her: her own acceptance of the guilt that crept about her now like other blood. He'd carry, for his part, the greater confidence he'd gained.

1973. Very definitely and precisely 1973, with the Sweet's Blockbuster in the charts and Mother's Pride bread being delivered to the hospital kitchens. The inedible school dinners - oh Christ yes, do I ever remember the inedible school dinners - and Cilla Black and Dick Emery on the telly. I suppose that, at least, has changed, even if The Archers is still going strong.

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started to read William Trevor’s books in the late 1990s and consider him as one of my favorite authors. His fiction and short stories are equally good. I joined GoodReads about 2 months ago and wanted to start to build up my library/books read here, since I do enjoy reading.

I gave this novel an A+, ergo a 5-star rating for GoodReads!

[Hoora · Rating 5 out of 5]

یک داستان معمولی ولی عمیق از زندگی روزمره چهار زن که در مقطعی با هم آشنا و دوست می شوند.
داستان با الیزابت شروع و تمام می شود؛ یک زن و مادر چهل ساله...
گرچه بیشتر داستان حول محور این چند زن می گذرد،
اما کتاب یکی دو شخصیت فرعی هم دارد، از جمله هنری و شرح زندگی رو به افولش(که یه جاهایی واقعاً دلم برایش می سوخت)

علاوه بر داستان کتاب که خیلی خوب بود و دوست داشتم، شیوه روایت نویسنده در بعضی قسمت‌های داستان هم خیلی جذاب بود.

1399/9/27

[ح جیمی · Rating 4 out of 5]

تنهایی الیزابت روایت تنهایی آدمها به خصوص زنها در دنیای پر هیاهوی امروز است. دنیایی که هر کس به گونه‌ای با مشکلات دست و پنجه می کند. اما لابه‌لای تمام این شلوغی ها هنوز می توان آدم‌هایی را یافت که دلشان برای تنهایی انسان ها می سوزد و دغدغه ی آنها را دارند.

[James Wall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard an interview with Trevor during which he talked about how he meshed stories together. Until this novel of his I had not been aware of him doing so. There are many characters that are all wonderfully drawn, as Trevor always does. The main characters are all in hospital and the novel provides their stories and those of other characters connected to them. Trevor never ceases to create the world that his characters inhabit so beautifully.

Second read. Wonderful characterisation as usual with Trevor. Such a rich novel

[نوشیار خلیلی · Rating 4 out of 5]

روایاتی درباره‌ی چهار زن کاملا متفاوت که در بخش زنان بستری و کسانی که در ارتباط با آن‌ها هستند. روایت الیزابت ایدلبری که زنی است مطلقه در لندن دهه‌ی هفتاد و نزدیک دو دهه زیر بار نگاه سنگین شوهرش سرکوب شده است، از باقی روایات پررنگ‌تر است.

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lives of four women intersect at the Women's Hospital in London, one is already on the ward, the other three have come to have the same operation, hysterectomies. We move among Elizabeth, 41, divorced with three daughters; Miss Samson, who runs a quiet rooming house of church folk, Sylvie, a shopgirl at Woolworth's who is in love with an Irish thief, and Lily, already on the ward for enforced bed rest, hoping, after several miscarriages, to carry this baby to term. Four lives, four versions of hope and hopelessness, of love and its loss, of making their ways in the world. Precise, and often funny, and so very human.

[luna2271 · Rating 2 out of 5]

دوستش نداشتم. ریویوی کامل‌تری رو توی اینستاگرام نوشتم ولی به نظرم نویسنده در بازتولید جهان زنانه که اتفاقی مختص به زنان رو دارن تجربه می‌کنن (عمل برداشتن رحم) ناموفق بوده وبه بیراهه رفته.

[Miriam Cihodariu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's worth a happy nod when a male author - especially from older times - writes in such a knowing and respectful manner about 'women's troubles' such as hysterectomies and abortions, and other parts of life which traditional literary canon shies away from. Especially since they infringe on the idealistic view on women, and very few female characters from pre-80s literature are portrayed in a more nuanced manner, when written by male authors.

But beyond this feminist nod, I like the book for itself and for the genuine life feel of the characters and the dialogues presented in it. It read like a slice of recent Irish history in a small and settled part of town.

[Kamyab Ghanbari · Rating 2 out of 5]

در یک کلام می‌گم بسیار خسته کننده.

[Parisa.m.t · Rating 4 out of 5]

احساس تنهایی بیجا بود...آن هم وقتی دیگران واقعا تنها بودند...آدم هایی که در سوئیت های کوچک زندگی میکردند...آدم های غمگین و سن و سال داری که درباره شان خوانده بود...آنها که روز کریسمس جایی نداشتند بروند...زندگیش کمترین شباهتی به آنها نداشت....
.
عادت دارم قبل از شروع هرکتابی خیلی نظر درباره اش میخونم و جزو کتابایی بود که نظرات چندان جالب نبود...اکثرا میگفتن خسته کننده و طولانیه...پس طبیعتا با این دید کتاب رو شروع کردم که منتظر باش تا غر بزنی😅
ولی اصلااا برای من خسته کننده نبود....من خیلی باهاش ارتباط گرفتم..با لی لی و شوهر و خانواده شوهرِ عجیبش...با دوشیزه سامسون و شک و شبهه ای که داشت...با هنری که از ته دلم غمگینش شدم...با جوانا که چقدر عذاب میکشید از رابطه مزخرفی که با مادرش داشت و در نهایت با الیزابتی که انگار هیچوقت طعم خوشبختی رو حس نکرده بود...انگار زندگی رو فقط گذرونده بود..."زندگی" نکرده بود.
یه جایی تو داستان میگه الیزابت از اون زنایی هست که نباید تنها بمونه ولی منم مثل الیزابتی که تو اخرین خط اعتراف کرد "من تنهایی خوشحال ترم" باهاش موافقم که شلوغی باعث بوجود اومدن این "تنهایی الیزابت" شده بود💜
اولین کتابم بود از سری داستانی نشر بیدگل و واقعا دوسش داشتم...ترجمه عالی بود....به نظرم امتحان کنین خوندنشو احتمالش زیاده که به جونتون بچسبه😊

[Nadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

الیزابت به چهل سالگی رسیده؛ در زندگی مشترک و با وجود داشتن سه فرزند به بن بست رسیده و این در حالی‌ست که بابت مشکل جسمانی باید راهی بیمارستان بشود و عمل جراحی انجام دهد.
الیزابت خاطرات گذشته‌اش را در مقاطع مختلف زندگی و سنی مرور می‌کند. روزهایی کودکی، نوجوانی، جوانی و در نهایت عاشق شدن، ولی عشقی که خیلی زود در زندگی مشترک رنگ باخته است....
کتاب را با وجود ساده‌ بودن و یکنواخت بودنش دوست داشتم، یک جورهایی انگار همه در چهل سالگی به این حال و هوا دچار می‌شویم و حتی من ۳۰ ساله هم گاهی در دهه ۲۰ سالگی چنین حالی را تجربه کرده‌ام. ترجمه مناسب بود اما می‌توانست خوش‌خوان‌تر باشد

[Nazanin Banaei · Rating 3 out of 5]

انگار واقعیت این بود که این مرد، در پس ظاهر جذابش، بسیار شبیه پدرش بود. دور از چشم او پیش روان‌پزشک رفته بود. به نظر روان‌پزشکش با انتخاب چنین شوهری، قصد داشته از عذاب‌وجدانی که در قبال پدرش حس می‌کرده خلاص شود. الیزابت این حرف را قبول نداشت و به روان‌پزشکش هم گفته بود که اینطور نیست و او هم صبورانه لبخندی زده بود. با لحن ملایمی گفته بود: «اگه اینطور باشه خانم ایدلبری، شاید قصد دارین، با تنبیه مردی که باهاش ازدواج کردین، پدرتون رو تنبیه کنین.»

[Fahime Zarei · Rating 4 out of 5]

ترجمه خوب و داستان پرکشش و در عین حال کسالت آور عین زندگی . خیلی از سبک نویسنده خوشم اومد احتمال بیشتر ازش بخونم

[Andréa Lechner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slow read, like a dish in a pressure cooker, eventually coming to the boil and then really concentrating all its flavours once it reaches the final stages. The characters take a long time to build, yet towards the end we find ourselves relating to some of them, as well as sympathising with others. As always, Trevor is a master of intimate detail, understanding human nature fully and showing us a wide range of characters and personalities. I was concerned at first that the novel was set in a hospital, but once I became used to it the narrative took over, and the setting became less important.
A novel worthy of attention, but not one for anybody in a hurry. The plot unravels snail pace, delivering its bitter-sweet ending without a trace of a bang.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
Perhaps it was the timing. I couldn’t connect with the four women. Sad and depressing.

[ایلا اکبری · Rating 4 out of 5]

رمانیست با کانسپت روانشناختی از رویارویی چهار زن که در بخشی از یک بیمارستان بستری هستند.
الیزابت، زنی که بعد ز ۱۹ سال زندگی مشترک ازدواجش را پوچ دیده و طلاق گرفته که باعث شده خود را مقصر همه چیز بداند
سیلوی، دختری‌ که دوست پسرش آدم بی بند و باریست
لی‌لی، زن بارداری که با خانواده شوهرش مشکل دارد
و دوشیزه سامپسون، زن کهنسال، مذهبی و باکره که در نتیجه اتفاقی به اعتقاداتش شک برده است.
و همچنین شخصیت‌های فرعی اما مهم شامل
دکلان،‌دوست پسر سیلوی، هنری، مردی شکست خورده و افسرده و ...
روند داستان می‌تواند برایتان کمی خسته کننده باشد زیرا تمرکز نویسنده بیشتر روی حالات ذهنی و زندگی شخصیت‌های رمان است تا اتفاقات هیجان انگیز به همین خط داستانی تقریبا ثابتی دارد.
لحن کتاب لحن غمباریست با اتفاقات غم انگیز در داستان
پیشنهاد می‌کنم اگر در حال حاضر از مشکلات روحی رنج می‌برید خواندن این رمان را به زمانی دیگر موکول کنید

[Arezoo · Rating 2 out of 5]

داستان یکنواخت و کسالت باری داشت.. پر از پرش های داستانی از این شخصیت به اون شخصیت بود و متوجه نمیشدی قصه اصلی واقعا کدم ماجراست ..من هرچه تلاش کردم نتونستم باهاش ارتباط برقرار کنم.
شاید سبک داستانی نویسنده به این شکل بود..منتهی اصلا باب طبع و میل کتابخوانیم نبود متاسفانه

[Chrystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Trevor at his best.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I found this author.

[Elizabeth Bridcut · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this for fun because my name is Elizabeth and my nephew's is William and his middle name is Trevor so it would be rude not to! I do like William Trevor's writing and this is his trademark style, very understated in terms of plot but beautifully observed and quite poignant. Hard to know how many stars to give it, it's not my favourite of his and its not a 'must read' but 3 stars feels a little mean!

[Milad Jafari · Rating 2 out of 5]

خیلی کند بود
واقعا ۴ روز بهش وقت دادم ولی جذبم نکرد
هیچ هیجانی در من انگیخته نشد
البته شاید از اول خرید این کتاب اشتباه بود
داستان های روزمزه آدم ها برام جالب نیست

[Nima · Rating 4 out of 5]

۴.۵
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