Tales From Bective Bridge

'Mary Lavin's stories... are subtle without making a palaver about it, beautifully told, no pat endings, no slickness; and as in life, nothing is resolved.' William Trevor First published in 1943, Tales from Bective Bridge is a collection of ten stories that memorably depict the rural mid-lands of Ireland and their people. Mary Lavin, though American-born, grew up in Athenry; and though the Irish short story was a dauntingly well-established form she succeeded in reinventing it with this, her debut collection, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, which exhibits a Chekhovian gift for the meaning of small things, contrary behaviours and emotions. This 2012 edition, reissued for the centenary of Mary Lavin's birth, includes an introduction by Evelyn Conlon. 'One of modern Irish fiction's most subversive voices... [Lavin's] art explored often brutal tensions, disappointments and frustrations dictating the relationships within so-called 'normal' families.' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

Mary Lavin was born in Massachusetts in 1912, but moved to Ireland as a child. Her first collection of short stories, Tales from Bective Bridge, published in 1942, was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and launched her acclaimed career in this genre. Her stories appeared in the New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly, among other magazines. Her novels, including The House in Clewe Street, were also widely celebrated. She won several awards, including the Guggenheim fellowship and the Katherine Mansfield Prize, andshewas President of the Irish PEN and Aosdána, the Irish Academy of Letters. She died in 1996.