Trevor's fiction has been compared to that of the Irish writer James Joyce. Joyce's short story collection The Dubliners (1914) explores facets of life in Ireland from the viewpoints of children and adults, and raises political, artistic, and religious concerns.

The final story of the work, "The Dead," is considered a masterpiece of fiction worldwide. Graham Greene's novel Brighton Rock (1938) also explores sin and redemption through evocation of a British teenage gang leader and his young wife. Both are Roman Catholics, and their religious background plays a major role in their thoughts if not their actions.

Irish writer Sean O'Faolain, known for his carefully crafted, lyrical short stories, also presents historical views of the Irish people in 1940's An Irish Journey and 1949's The Irish, a Character Study. His short stories have also been collected in The Collected Short Stories of Sean O'Faolain I (1980), many of which...