Felicia's Journey - William Trevor

An unmarried Irish girl, pregnant and penniless, drifting through the industrial English Midlands in search of the boyfriend who left her, instead meets Mr. Hilditch, fat, fiftyish, unfailingly reasonable--who is looking for a new friend to join the other girls of his Memory Lane. Perfectly executed and chilling.--New York Times.

nPerfectly executed and chilling... a sad and oddly moving tale of lost opportunities and misplaced hopes.--The New York Times nTrevor was our twentieth century Chekov.--Wall Street Journal n nFelicia is unmarried, pregnant, and penniless. She steals away from a small Irish town and drifts through the industrial English Midlands, searching for the boyfriend who left her.

Instead she meets up with the fat, fiftyish, unfailingly reasonable Mr. Hilditch, who is looking for a new friend to join the five other girls in his Memory Lane. But the strange, sad, terrifying tricks of chance unravel both his and Felicia's delusions in a story that will magnetize fans of Alfred Hitchcock and Ruth Rendell even as it resonates with William Trevor's own impeccable strength and piercing profundity (The Washington Post Book World).n