Party

An irresistible novella about two sisters and a night that changes everything, from the master chronicler of our heart s hidden desires. Tessa Hadley is my favourite author KATE ATKINSON Evelyn had the surprising thought that bodies were sometimes wiser than the people inside them. She d have liked to impress somebody with this idea, but couldn t explain it. 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. Few writers give me such consistent pleasure ZADIE SMITH Hadley s extraordinary skill [is] making both surface life and deep interiors come fully alive COLM T IB N Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book HILARY MANTEL