Mary Lavin

Born in the Massachusetts of Irish parents in 1911, Mary Lavin moved to Ireland at the age of four. Her debut collection of stories in 1943, Tales from Bective Bridge, marked her out as a short story writer of brilliance to rank alongside peers like O’Connor and O’Faolain, who brought a new and piercing female perspective to that form. Her work received numerous international awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Katherine Mansfield Prize, and many of her stories – like the title story of this collection, were first published in the prestigious New Yorker.