Late in the Day, Tessa Hadley
Late in the Day, Tessa Hadley
2 Rating(s)
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Late in the Day
A Novel

Author: Tessa Hadley

Narrator: Abigail Thaw

Unabridged: 7 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Harper

Published: 01/15/2019


Synopsis

The lives of two close-knit couples are irrevocably changed by an untimely death in the latest from Tessa Hadley, the acclaimed novelist and short story master who “recruits admirers with each book” (Hilary Mantel).

Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their twenties. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: she is at the hospital. Zach is dead.In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. But instead of loss bringing them closer, the three of them find over the following months that it warps their relationships, as old entanglements and grievances rise from the past, and love and sorrow give way to anger and bitterness.Late in the Day explores the complex webs at the center of our most intimate relationships, to expose how, beneath the seemingly dependable arrangements we make for our lives, lie infinite alternate configurations. Ingeniously moving between past and present and through the intricacies of her characters’ thoughts and interactions, Tessa Hadley once again “crystallizes the atmosphere of ordinary life in prose somehow miraculous and natural” (Washington Post).

About Tessa Hadley

Tessa Hadley is the author of six highly acclaimed novels, including Clever Girl and The Past, as well as three short story collections, most recently Bad Dreams and Other Stories, which won the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her stories appear regularly in The New Yorker; in 2016 she was awarded the Windham Campbell Prize and the Hawthornden Prize. She lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ron on January 10, 2019

With each new book by Tessa Hadley, I grow more convinced that she’s one of the greatest stylists alive. The British author of seven novels and several story collections, Hadley regularly inspires such praise, but her success was hardly a foregone conclusion. Her first novel, “Accidents in the Home,......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on December 07, 2023

This is a story of overlapping couples who are opposites, all of them drawing together to create a larger human design. The dissimilar men have been best friends since school, as have the contrasting women, and they meet and marry in heterosexual complements. Each couple gives birth to a daughter, a......more

Goodreads review by Mark on January 21, 2024

Character pieces like this one, from my limited experience, are often slow to get-going. I was even thinking of putting this one aside after 50 or 60 pages. Oh my, I am so thankful I didn’t. Alex and Christine are married, as are Zachary and Lydia – they’ve all been close friends since schooldays and......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on January 22, 2019

Beautifully written! Two couples have been the best of friends since their twenties. For over thirty years, it’s been Zach and Lydia and Alex and Christine through it all. One night Christine and Alex receive a call from Lydia. Zach has unexpectedly passed away. Interestingly, all the friends agree......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie on January 14, 2019

Tessa Hadley's writing is like a specific taste - think cilantro, marzipan, or liver. You either like it immediately or it doesn't mesh with your tastes. I found myself trying very hard to get into the flow of the narrative but it was like an undertow. No matter how hard I tried to stay afoot, I kep......more