Item Specifics - Fiction Books
Author: Maeve Binchy
Category: Romance
Publisher: Delacorte Pr
Historical
ISBN: 0385318073
Condition: Used
Format: Hardcover
Publication Year: 1997
Special Attributes: 1st Edition

Additional Information about Evening Class
Portions of this page Copyright 1995 - 2006 Muze Inc. All rights reserved.

Synopsis
Nora O'Donohue returns to Ireland from Italy, where she lived for many years, to be near her married Sicilian lover. His death relieved her of a reason for residing in Italy, but fluency in Italian is a legacy of her love. When she returns to Ireland, Nora begins teaching adult education lessons, infusing her classes and the lives of her students with the love and romance that she equates with the language. Another tale of the complications arising from the bonds of family and love from best-selling author Binchy.

Size
Length: 420 pages
Height: 10.0 in.
Width: 6.5 in.
Thickness: 1.5 in.
Weight: 22.4 oz.

Publisher's Note
Aidan Dunne, a Dublin Latin teacher, always meant to go back to the Italy he visited as a youth. But as the years passed, he concentrated instead on the usual struggles of daily life, like vying for the job of headmaster at his school, keeping memories of Italy in the back corners of his mind. At forty-eight, emotionally distanced from his wife and baffled by his two grown daughters, Aidan Dunne might have given up entirely if it hadn't been for the evening class. His class. A class called Introduction to Italian. A class where people from every walk of life come together. A class where long-buried hopes come alive again. The teacher is Signora, a vivacious, eccentric woman with an irrepressible nature and a buried past. Her real name is Nora O'Donoghue, a Dublin native who abandoned Ireland decades before to follow her mysterious lover to Italy. Having defied her parents' Catholic conventions, she ended up in a village where tradition dictated everything - including how a woman could love or grieve. Now, as she meets Aidan Dunne and the men and women who come together each Tuesday and Thursday night, Signora begins to learn their secrets and their dreams. And slowly she transforms each of their lives. Suddenly Aidan Dunne's last chance, his evening class has become a place of intrigue and revelation.
Maeve Binchy has captured the hearts of readers with her spectacular national bestsellers Circle of Friends, The Glass Lake, and This Year It Will be Different. Now she dazzles us once again with a new novel that is filled with her signature warmth, wit, and unforgettable characters--a powerful, moving tale of ordinary men and women whose quiet lives hide the most unexpected things.Aidan Dunne, a Dublin Latin teacher, always meant to go back to the Italy he visited as a youth. But as the years passed, he concentrated instead on the usual struggles of daily life, like vying for the job of headmaster at his school, keeping memories of Italy in the back corners of his mind. At forty-eight, emotionally distanced from his wife, baffled by his two grown daughters, Aidan Dunne might have given up entirely if it hadnt been for the evening class. His class. A class called Introduction to Italian. A class where people from every walk of life come together. A class where long-buried hopes come alive again.The teacher is Signora, a vivacious, eccentric woman with an irrepressible nature and a buried past. Her real name is Nora ODonoghue, a Dublin native who abandoned Ireland decades before to follow her mysterious lover to Italy. Having defied her parents Catholic conventions, she ended up in a village where tradition dictated everything--including how a woman could love or grieve. Now, as she meets Aidan Dunne and the men and women who come together each Tuesday and Thursday night, Signora begins to learn their secrets and their dreams. And slowly she transforms each of their lives.Suddenly Aidan Dunnes last chance, his evening class has become a place of intrigue and revelation. Here Bill, a reliable bank clerk, uncovers the hidden source of his fiancee Lizzies outrageous behavior. Teenage Kathy, slow at day school but bright as a button with Signora, is coming close to realizing a devastating truth about her family. Streetwise Lou, his tuition paid by a crime boss, has his own agenda for the group. And mousy Fiona decides to meddle in a married man's illicit affair--with repercussions for everyone, including Signora and Aidan Dunne.In writing that is wise and evocative, powerful and moving, Maeve Binchy brings to life a story of families and lovers, of unrealized passions and moments of triumph, of wounds made by caring too much, or not caring at all. And in Evening Class she shows us the power of a dream to expand horizons, and transform clerks and schoolteachers into heroes.

Industry reviews
"If it is true that subjects choose their writers rather than the other way round, then these subjects were lucky in their choice. Poor or rich, quick-or-slow-witted, ambitious or phlegmatic: Each member of the ensembles cast clearly has the author's affection, and rightly so."
Washington Post Book World - Mary K. Zuravleff (03/02/1997)

"A first-class storyteller."
Heller

"A remarkably gifted writer."
Lipstadt