The Party

An irresistible story about two sisters and a night that changes everything, from the master chronicler of our heart's hidden desires.

LINDSAY'S REVIEW

The first Tessa Hadley book I have read, this novella was an enjoyable delve into old England of the WWII era. In a coastal town setting, two sisters explore the freedoms of a new era far from the dangers. Slumming it at a Bohemian party in a run-down port-side pub, they are befriended by two young men of breeding. Subsequent social mingling with the new crowd reveals the changing class boundaries that the war has brought. Battling with the shame, or glory, of elicit affairs, the novella explores the new reality for young women in this pre-victim mentality of feminine liberty.

The writing is fresh and evocative, immersing the reader in the everyday mundanity of the war years in small town Britain, while also incorporating the deeper undercurrents of societal change that swirl behind family life and young people’s desires. At moments the story resonates with echoes of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, but on the other side of the pond. A lot gets explored in a little space. A great read for book clubs.

PUBLISHER REVIEW

On a winter Saturday night in post-war Bristol, sisters Moira and Evelyn, on the cusp of adulthood, go to an art students' party in a dockside pub; there they meet two men, Paul and Sinden, whose air of worldliness and sophistication both intrigues and repels them. Sinden calls a few days later to invite them over to the grand suburban mansion Paul shares with his brother and sister, and Moira accepts despite Evelyn's misgivings.

As the night unfolds in this unfamiliar, glamorous new setting, the sisters learn things about themselves and each other that shock them, and release them into a new phase of their lives.

In this delightful novella of two young women coming of age, Tessa Hadley explores the ever-changing desires, the sudden revelations and the lasting mysteries that are bound up with who we are, and who we might become.