I had never heard of this short novel by William Trevor before my book club elected to discuss it. Now that I’ve read it, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’ll admit I listened to the audiobook while getting work done around the house, and while that’s normally not a problem for me, I did have a hard time focusing on this book. Not sure if it’s the book’s fault, or if it’s due to other distractions I was dealing with in my life at the time. Either way, I’m sure there’s stuff I missed, so take this review with a large grain of salt. I might update it after discussing it with my book club.
The story takes place primarily in Ireland in the early part of the 20th century. It starts in the 1920s during “The Troubles” in Ireland. Lucy Gault is the only child of an Irishman who is a retired captain who used to work for the British army. Lucy’s mother is an Englishwoman who moved to England when she married the captain, so they’re not very popular.
When Lucy is about 8 years old, someone poisons their dogs and tries to set their house on fire in the middle of the night. Her dad shoots at them intending just to warn them off, but he ends up hitting one of them by accident.
He visits the family and apologizes, although I don’t see how he had anything to apologize for. But it’s clear they don’t accept his apology, and his wife is worried that the situation will escalate, so she wants to GTFO. They decide to pack up and move to England.
Young Lucy is understandably upset about leaving the only home she’s ever known. She decides to hide in the woods for a while until her parents agree to stay home, but her plan backfires in a big way.
She was prone to go swimming in the ocean by herself, even though her parents had warned her against the dangers of doing so. Before running off into the woods, she goes for a swim and her dog takes off with some of her clothes and she never manages to find them again. But her parents find them and assume she drowned. Grief stricken, they pack up and move out of town. Mrs. Gault decides England isn’t far enough, so they keep going and end up traveling the continent.
They had left a couple servants behind to look after the property and they’re the ones who find Lucy and end up raising her. They try to get in touch with her parents to tell them what happened, but since the couple made the decision to keep moving when they were already on the road, their servants don’t know that the address they have for them is not where they’re living.
Poor Lucy’s life is not terrible, but it’s not very happy, either. She is eventually reunited with her dad, but not until she’s in her 30s. By that time most of the damage done by their separation is done and can’t be undone.