The Story of Lucy Gault - Book Review

The Story of Lucy Gault opens in southern Ireland in 1921. It is a country in torment, a country at war, a country seeking its own destiny.

The Gaults are Protestant in a predominantly Catholic country. Men come to the house at night, frightening men, and the Gaults, like so many other families, decide to leave.

But the daughter Lucy, nine, doesn�t want to leave. She loves the house and the woods and the beach and the people. She loves her home. She won�t leave, she won�t. Instead, she disappears.

Her cardigan is found beside the sea. The parents imagine she has drowned and leave in mourning, grieving for their only child. But Lucy is not dead.

So begins William Trevor�s fascinating novel. In parts it is not an easy read. Mister Trevor has a way with words quite different to any other writer I have read. Several times I had to re-read a sentence to make sense of it, several times I was left wondering if the printer had made a mistake. And more times too, I re-read a sentence just because of the wonder of it.

The book is full of heartache and sorrow, and yet beautifully written. Time passes by so slowly. Will Lucy ever find happiness? She might do, one day.

William Trevor was born in Ireland in 1928, but now lives in Devon in the south west of England. He has written a huge body of work, and won innumerable awards, and if you haven�t dipped your toes in the Trevor stream before now, this may well be a good place to begin.