Yesterday's Weather: Stories

Winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize, Anne Enright's novel The Gathering went on to become a national best seller acclaimed for its electrifying prose and haunting emotional resonance. Now, in Yesterday's Weather, Enright presents a series of deeply moving glimpses into a rapidly changing Ireland: a land of family and tradition, but also, increasingly, of organic radicchio, cruise-ship vacations, and casual betrayals. An artisan farmer seethes at the patronage of a former Catholic-school classmate, now a successful restaurateur; a bride cuckolds her rich husband with an old college friend—a madman who won't take his pills, disappears for weeks at a time, and plays the piano like a dream. Still more startling than loss or deception are the ways in which people respond to them: a wife eaten up by rage at her husband's infidelity must weigh the real stakes after his affair takes a tragic turn; confronted with a similar situation, a woman decides to cheat with, rather than against, her man. Sharp, tender, never predictable, the sum of these stories is a rich tapestry of people struggling to find contentment with one another—and with themselves.