The Prisoner of Life
Tags
Summary
The included story "The Delimahon Mystery" was adapted by the BBC into a television drama, recreating how people approach and evade the truth, bury and create it—a Rashomon-like murder case.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Mature readers who enjoy literary short stories and prefer restrained narration
- Readers interested in Irish literature and contemporary English fiction
- Aspiring writers who want to learn how short stories handle strong emotion with restraint
- Readers who want to read one or two pieces in busy intervals and savor them slowly
Not a good fit for
- Readers who prefer genre fiction with strong plots, fast pacing, and clear endings
- Readers seeking light, stress-relieving reading experiences
- Readers impatient with open, elliptical endings
Reading tips
- Read in story order, pausing after each to feel the weight of the characters' choices before moving on.
- Start with "The Delimahon Mystery" to enter the book's tone through the tension between truth and narration.
- Keep a pen handy to mark sentences that seem plain but contain turns, and revisit the characters' situations afterward.
- If time is fragmented, read only one story per sitting to avoid dulling each story's independent emotional aftertaste through continuous reading.
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 三位一体
- 德利马赫伦疑案
- 隔世之过
- 第三者
- 爱上阿里亚德涅
- 特雷莫尔的蜜月
- 版画师
- 与奥利弗的一杯咖啡
- 丈夫的归来
- 校长的孩子
- 八月的星期六
- 凯瑟琳的地
- 译后记
FAQ
Is this book suitable for readers new to Trevor?
What is special about "The Delimahon Mystery"?
Does the title "Prisoners of Life" mean the characters are trapped by external forces?
Comments
Find this book
This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
William Trevor is one of the most important short story writers and dramatists in the history of Irish literature, often called "the Irish Chekhov." Over his career he produced a large body of short stories and novels, portraying with calm restraint the loss, loneliness, and quiet endurance of ordinary people in daily life, and he was especially skilled at capturing the inner turmoil of small figures marginalized by fate. His works are notable for their concise language and tight structure, often conveying deep emotional tension through seemingly plain narration, and they have had a profound influence on the development of the contemporary English-language short story. The library holds one of his works, The Prisoner of Life, classified under foreign literature, which displays Trevor's characteristic narrative style and humanistic concern. Because public information is limited, only a brief introduction is given here; more details remain for readers to discover through the works themselves.
Yake is a Chinese-language author about whom relatively limited public information is available; details such as nationality, dates of birth and death, and an English name have not been clearly recorded. Two works by this author are held in the collection, namely The Prisoner of Life and The Young People of Granby, generally classified under foreign literature. Judging from the titles and categorization of these two works, Yake's writing tends to center on the circumstances and fates of ordinary people, focusing on the constraints, struggles, and choices individuals face in everyday life, with a strong sense of realism and narrative drive. The title The Prisoner of Life suggests a close look at the predicaments of existence, while The Young People of Granby turns its attention to the coming-of-age experiences of young people. Because public materials are limited, it remains difficult to give a complete assessment of the author's overall body of work, yet these works already indicate a writing profile oriented toward translated foreign-language subjects or fiction, and are worth further reading by those interested in realistic themes.
