This collection of three short stories by the Irish novelist explores the griefs and sorrows of life, gently exploring the role of imagination in their propagation, and the pain of loneliness that loss leaves behind. In the title story, Anna Mackintosh is left stranded at a party when her husband Edward fails to arrive at the arranged time. We're told that she is given to anxiety and we watch as her humiliation at being stood up spirals into an obsessive conviction that her husband is about to arrive with her successor: his Mark-2 wife, no doubt a gorgeous young slip of a thing. Trevor probes the low-lying terror of the childless middle-aged woman who, with her fertile years behind her, begins to doubt her husband's love for her. As she spills her soul to the Ritchies, a kind and generous older couple who become increasingly alarmed at her disclosures, it becomes clear that Anna's worries have pushed her beyond the point of reason. Or have they?

The other two stories are more about memory, and the pain of loss. In The Time of Year, a young Irish student sits through a dull Christmas party given by her professor, studying the foibles and weaknesses of those around her, remembering a tragic Christmas many years before, from which she still can't liberate herself. And, in Cheating at Canasta, a man visits Harry's Bar in Venice, painfully remembering his previous visits to the city with his beloved wife, whose dementia has finally prevented her from travelling with him. As her own memories fade, he strives to keep his own alive, thereby preserving their marriage. While he ruminates, he overhears a conversation at the neighbouring table which makes him think more deeply about marriage, generosity and love. These are three rather sad stories, each in their own, way, but they're beautifully written. Trevor manages to inhabit each of his characters' minds, even though we only spend a few pages in their company, and his writing is immensely compassionate. I'll have to seek out some of his full-length novels. Any suggestions? ( )