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    Death in Summer
    Death in Summer
    Death in Summer
    Audiobook6 hours

    Death in Summer

    Written by William Trevor

    Narrated by Simon Prebble

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    William Trevor has established himself among the most celebrated authors of the past century. In 1997, he was named honorary Commander of the British Empire for his contributions to literature. A New York Times best-seller, Death in Summer is hailed as "astonishing" by the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Thaddeus Davenant's wife has just died in an automobile accident, leaving him to raise their infant daughter alone. Haunted by his wife's sudden death, Thaddeus agrees with his mother-in-law that the househould needs a nanny to help raise the child. Although she doesn't get the job, one young woman forms an immediate, secret attachment to Thaddeus and the baby-an attachment that will eventually become dangerous. Death in Summer is Trevor at his finest-his fluid, poetic prose and profound understanding of human nature make for an amazingly graceful novel. Simon Prebble delivers a sumptuous reading that equals the deep compassion of this remarkable book.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 5, 2010
    ISBN9781449814618
    Death in Summer
    Author

    William Trevor

    William Trevor KBE was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.

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    Reviews for Death in Summer

    3.5/5

    97 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A man who was unable to love his late wife, and in fact married her for her money, does love their daughter who is kidnapped by a lost soul. There are several lost characters - some seeking love in the best way they know how, often without satisfaction. Beautifully written and full of compassion.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Death in Summer is kind of a scary book. Not in the sense that it is inhabited by scary fantasy monsters, or even by vicious criminal masterminds, but in the sense that the people in it might not be so very different from people you see every day.

      Thaddeus, it is true, is a little odd. He seems never to have been able to fully love a woman, not even his beautiful and generous wife, Letitia. But his defects are fairly mild, really, and due to the strange way he was raised. He has, however, come to love his new baby, Georgina. And it comes as a cruel blow to him when one summer day Letitia is killed in an accident when she is riding her bicycle on the road near their home in the English countryside.

      Letitia’s death prompts Thaddeus to ponder his life, thinking back on the things he feels he has not done right. But there is Georgina to think of. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Iveson, suggests they might try to hire a nanny for the baby. She comes down, and she and Thaddeus interview four prospective candidates but find none of them suitable. Mrs. Iveson suggests it might work better if she moves in to look after the baby herself.

      This may not be the greatest solution, but having interviewed the potential nannies turns out to be a major mistake, as one of them has ‘taken to’ Thaddeus. She has been sure she was going to get the job, although she is the least suitable of the bunch, and she conceives a serious hatred of Mrs. Iveson who, she feels, has somehow prevented Thaddeus from doing what he wanted to do, namely hire her.

      The would-be nanny – Petty (sorry if this is not spelled correctly; this is a hazard with audiobooks; you never can be quite sure how names are spelled) – appears to have had a strange upbringing too. She apparently lived in some sort of orphanage where she was sexually abused by the “uncles,” who appear to have been the board of directors or similar.

      The portrait of Petty’s early life, and the story of what she does next, while nothing very unbelievable, are frightening because of their very ordinariness.
    • 4/5
      Good read but not an easy read. Changing perspectives quickly without warning but rewarding. Very well written.
    • 5/5
      I believe William Trevor is a brilliant writer who shows us the importance of the mundane.
    • 4/5
      It has been a bad summer for Thaddeus Davenant. His wife--who he married for her money, never loved, but had come to appreciate for her kindness--has been killed in a road accident. Left alone with an infant daughter, Thaddeus advertises for a nanny, but when none of the respondents seem to be acceptable, his mother-in-law moves in to care for little Georgina. But one applicant, Pettie, surprised that she didn't get the job, becomes obsessed with the much older Thaddeus, his sad story, and his privileged lifestyle. Although they come from two different worlds, Thaddeus and Pettie have one thing in common: an inability to love, at least in a normal way. Thaddeus's upper class parents were distant and critical while Pettie, raised in an orphanage, only knew the kind of love extended by a "Sunday uncle." Surprised by his own feelings for his new daughter, Thaddeus begins to open his heart and to feel for others, including Pettie and a former mistress who calls him to her deathbed. Pettie's obsession, however, takes them all into darker, more dangerous territory.Trevor is a master at depicting the broad divide between the upper and lower classes as well as the depths of the human heart and the psychological effects of a loveless childhood. Part of his mastery is that he is able to unfold all this subtly, without whacking his readers over the head with a purpose and a moral. While Death in Summer may not be his best novel, it is certainly worth reading.
    • 2/5
      I found this book overly full of flowery language and very short on entertainment. The list of 'points for discussion' included at the end put me in my place - hardly any of the 'points' had occurred to me whilst I was reading. It felt like the sort of thing a book group would greatly enjoy - many layers of meaning that probably don't come out with a single reading.
    • 3/5
      Not his best.
    • 3/5
      This book is, to my mind, the work of a top quality writer. Mr Trevor has really captured a mood and has painted portraits of people who are entirely believable despite being perhaps abnormal, or at least on the fringes of society. Despite this quality of writing, I didn't really engage with the story. In fact, it was almost the opposite. I read it with a real feeling of ...maybe fear? I couldn't stand the way the man was manipulated by the various people (nearly all women) around him. And yet on the other hand, his behavior did seem believable and I could imagine that, given the 'right' circumstances, I could end up in a similar situation myself. Another thing I didn't like about the book (which reflects on my own inadequacies) was the way Trevor would change the setting (e.g. into a dream, imagination, or recollection) without 'explanation', and being a fairly simple person I had to re-read or read closely and carefully to work out what was happening. I suppose I tend to prefer books that are written for a more down-market audience - you know, the Oprah Winfrey audience or similar.
    • 2/5
      This is the story of a man who was married to a very kind woman whom he didn't love. When his wife died unexpectedly, his concerns are centered around finding a caretaker for their infant daughter. One of the applicants for the position becomes increasingly obsessed with this man and the lifestyle that his wealthy wife provided. His mother-in-law's solution to the caretaking problem propels the obsession to a dangerous level.
    • 4/5
      After the death of Thaddeus Davenant's young wife and the ensuing arrival of his mother-in-law, they must attempt to get along and hire a nanny for the baby girl. All the applicants are turned away, so the grandmother moves in to take over. Pettie, one of the applicants who is a tough girl with a dark past, will not accept no for an answer and becomes obsessed with Thaddeus. She carries out her plot to get back into his life, but her plan only complicates and others become involved in her crime.