William Trevor's astonishing range as a writer — his humor, subtlety, and compassionate grasp of human behavior — is fully demonstrated in these two short novels. In Reading Turgenev, a lonely country girl escapes her loveless marriage in the arms of a bookish young man. In My House in Umbria, a former madam befriends the other survivors of a terrorist bombing with surprising results. (From Penguin Books)

Born in Ireland in 1928, William Trevor didn't see his writing career take off until 1964, when his early novel The Old Boys won the Hawthornden Prize, Britain's oldest literary prize. He has won three Whitbread Book of the Year awards and has received various lifetime achievement honours, including a knighthood. He died on Nov. 20, 2016.