This Year It Will Be Different, and other stories

From the New York Times bestselling author of Circle of Friends, The Glass Lake, and Evening Class comes a stunning collection of fifteen Christmas stories filled with Maeve Binchy’s trademark wit, charm, and sheer storytelling genius.  In “A Typical Irish Christmas,” a grieving widower heads for a holiday in Ireland and finds an unexpected destination not just for himself, but for a father and daughter in crisis. . . .  In “Pulling Together,” a teacher not yet out of her twenties sees her affair with a married man at a turning point as Christmas Eve approaches. . . .  And in the title story, “This Year It Will Be Different,” a woman with a complacent husband and grown children enters a season that will forever alter her life, and theirs. . .

These stories, and a dozen more, powerfully evoke many lives–from step-families grappling with exes to children caught in grown-up tugs-of-war–during the one holiday when feelings cannot be easily hidden.  The time of year may be magical, imbued with meaning.  But the situations are timeless.  And Maeve Binchy makes us care about them all.