Three luminous novels from a New York Times–bestselling author and National Book Award finalist. Throughout her long and acclaimed career, May Sarton refused to be categorized. As a memoirist, poet, and novelist, she broke new ground by openly exploring homosexuality, gender inequality, and other once taboo social issues. Gathered here in one volume are three of her most memorable and moving works of fiction. Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing: Widely regarded as her most important work, Sarton's 1965 semiautobiographical novel centers upon Hillary Stevens, an author now in her twilight years. As she prepares to publish anew, Stevens sits down to discuss her life, the arc of her creative journey, and her love affairs-with both men and women. A Shower of Summer Days: The Irish estate home Dene Court has been shuttered for years-but this summer Violet Dene Gordon and her husband Charles return from British Burma, electrifying life in the sleepy village that adjoins Violet's childhood home. As an added complication, Violet's American niece is being sent to Ireland to separate her from an unsuitable romantic attachment.
"May Sarton's best work, whatever its form, will endure well beyond the influence of particular reviews or current tastes. For in it she is an example: a seeker after truth with a kind of awesome energy for renewal, an ardent explorer of life's important questions."
The New York Times Book Review
"In whatever May Sarton writes one can hear the human heart pulsing just below the surface."
