The party: Tessa Hadley

An unforgettable story about two sisters and a night that changes everything, told by a master chronicler of our heart’s hidden desires. On a winter Saturday night in post-war Bristol, sisters Moira and Evelyn, on the cusp of adulthood, attend an art students’ party in a dockside pub. There they meet two men, Paul and Sinden, whose air of worldliness both intrigues and unsettles them. A few days later, Moira visits a grand suburban mansion shared by Paul and his siblings, inviting Evelyn into a new world of glamour and unfamiliar rules. As the night unfolds, the sisters confront revelations about themselves and each other, embarking on a new phase of life.

Critics praise Hadley’s ability to bring surface life and deep interiors fully alive, delivering a vivid, intimate portrait of desire, rivalries, and growth. The book is a concise, sharply observed novel that captures the tension between longing and restraint, and the ways in which a single night can redefine a young woman’s future.

• Two sisters navigate post-war Bristol and an art party
• Night of revelation at a grand suburban mansion
• Worldly, intriguing visitors shed light on desires
• Themes of self-discovery, sisterly bond, and transition
• 128 pages, hardcover edition
• Published 31/10/2024 by Jonathan Cape

Features

• Two sisters Moira and Evelyn
• Post-war setting in Bristol
• Meeting Paul and Sinden
• Transformation through a single night
• Short, incisive prose
• Hardcover edition, 128 pages