The William Trevor Reader: “Lunch in Winter”

I think this is one of the stronger pieces in the , a spiritual descendant of the early masterpiece As with “Access,” we are given a main character written in such close third that the story feels told from their perspective—in the case of “Lunch in Winter,” this character is Mrs. Nancy Simpson, an aging actress and former chorus girl, who has lunch once a week in an Italian trattoria with her ex-husband, the stolid and recently widowered Fitz. They’ve been meeting at this spot over the last six months, having run into each