''Two Lives'' (1991) consists of a pair of novellas by

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

writer

William Trevor William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of th ...

and published as a single book. The volume is composed of ''Reading Turgenev'' and ''My House in Umbria''.

Plot

''Reading Turgenev'' deals with the life of Mary Louise Dallon, a farm girl from southeastern

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

who marries an older

draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, ...

named Elmer Quarry. Her marriage remains unconsummated, in part due to the growing

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

of her husband. She falls in love with her invalid cousin Robert, who introduces her to the works of great Russian writers (including

Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...

). She eventually goes mad and structures her life around preserving the existence of Robert to the finest detail possible, including re-creating his room and possessions in her attic. In ''My House in Umbria'', the first-person narrator, a retired prostitute and madam, now a writer of romantic novels, recollects a brief period when she sheltered in her

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

n retirement villa three fellow survivors of a terrorist attack on an Italian passenger train. The novella has been made into a made-for-television film, also entitled ''

My House in Umbria ''My House in Umbria'' is a 2003 American made-for-television drama mystery film, based on the 1991 novella of the same name by William Trevor and published along with another novella in the volume '' Two Lives''. The film stars Maggie Smith ...

'', which departs substantially from the somber plot of the original.

Awards and nominations

''Reading Turgenev'' was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1991. 1991 Irish novels Novellas Works by William Trevor {{1990s-novel-stub