“In the dining-room of the Pensione Cesarina solitary diners are fitted in around the walls, where space does not permit a table large enough for two.”
Told in the present tense, ‘After Rain’ by William Trevor is a tender story about solitude. Harriet is on holiday in Italy, following the end of a love affair, and we meet her as she dines alone in a hotel restaurant.
Observing the other diners, Harriet wears an “unadorned” blue dress and “earrings that hardly show”. We’re told that a holiday to Skyros with her lover has recently been cancelled, giving her an “empty fortnight” to fill.
She chose the Cesarina because she’d stayed there in childhood, before her parents separated. Tinged with sadness and nostalgia, ‘After Rain’ explores how our upbringing shapes our own romantic encounters. But more than that, the story is a meditation on being alone.
In understated prose, Trevor shows us the quiet virtues of solitude, how it makes us more attentive to our surroundings and our inner lives. As Harriet wanders the Italian streets, she’s attuned to architecture, nature and changes in the weather. She visits the Santa Fabiola, a church with a version of The Annunciation by an unknown artist. Looking at the painting, she zones in on details – the Virgin’s feet, the angel’s wings, the sky and hills in the distance.
For Harriet, observing the world is a form of healing. She’s heartbroken yet she gives herself the space she needs. As the title suggests, ‘After Rain’ is a story about change. Harriet’s “private journey” isn’t grand or dramatic, it’s subtle and humane, and so beautifully told.
First published in The New Yorker, 1995. Collected in William Trevor: Selected Stories, Penguin Books, 2009. Read it online here
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