Coolbar, Ireland, is a village of secrets and Shell, caretaker to her younger brother and sister after the death of their mother and with the absence of their father, is not about to reveal hers until suspicion falls on the wrong person.

A collection of twelve tales includes stories about a waiter who reveals his shocking life of crime to his ex-wife, the disintegration of a marriage following a terrible tragedy, and a middle-aged accountant who ends a love affair.

William Trevor has long been hailed as the master of the short story. His new collection, The Hill Bachelors, is an elegant, heartbreaking book about men and women and their missed opportunities. Here we meet four people in a small suburban house, whose lives are frozen in a conspiracy of silence that precludes love's consummation; a nine-year-old who harbors a dream that a movie part will end her fragmented family life; a brother and sister who must...