A Time To Dance & Other Stories

A TIME TO DANCE and Other Stories

Cape /Blackstaff Press/Vintage(1982)

Bernard MacLaverty' s beautifully turned stories are full of humour, terse realism and moments of touching or shocking surprise.

Nelson plays truant and sees something he wishes he hadn't in the the title story, 'A Time to Dance'.

In 'Phonefun Limited' Sadie and Agnes, retired prostitutes, hit upon an inventive new way of 'making someone happy with a phone call', while in 'My Dear Palestrina' a remarkable music teacher initiates her pupil onto the mysteries of art and maturity.

"Bernard  MacLaverty's prose ... is vivid and virtually  faultless. He  has the knack of breathing life into a character in the  time  it takes  to  say a simple sentence...one of the best  practitioners  of the genre we have."

James Campbell in The New Statesman (30 April 1982)

"...  not  since J.D.Salinger's For Esme With  Love  and  Squalor have  I enjoyed so much a collection of stories. I mean pleasure  - real pleasure."

Paul Durcan in The Cork Examiner (4th May 1982)

Contains:

Father and Son
A Time to Dance
My Dear Palestrina
Life Drawing
Phonefun Limited
The Daily Woman
No Joke
The Beginnings of a Sin
Eels
Language, Truth and Lockjaw