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The Party

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The Party

By: Tessa Hadley
Narrated by: Tessa Hadley
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

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

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.


‘Tessa Hadley is my favourite author’ KATE ATKINSON


‘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 TÓIBÍN
‘Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book’
HILARY MANTEL


© Tessa Hadley 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

 20th Century Coming of Age Family Life Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Heartfelt

Critic reviews

Few writers give me such consistent pleasure (Zadie Smith, author White Teeth)
Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book (Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall)
She is one of the best fiction writers writing today (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Purple Hibiscus)
The writer we didn’t know we were waiting for, until she arrived (Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren)
Something small but perfectly formed will always do well as Christmas draws near – ask Claire Keegan – and Tessa Hadley’s novella The Party looks just the ticket. (Anthony Cummins)
[An] exquisite work from one of our finest writers
The Party is a coming-of-age story humming with all the tightly packed resonances of a poem… Tessa Hadley is one of our finest chroniclers, and this novella is a glimmering, sensuous addition to her supremely elegant oeuvre
The novelist and short story writer Tessa Hadley is alternately beloved and teased for her focus on British middle-class life. But she does it so well… Hadley’s power is in the details
There is no-one who writes better about middle-class life in 20th- and 21st-century Britain than Tessa Hadley
Though the book is short…Hadley’s touch [is] delicate as ever
All stars
Most relevant
DNF, the only thing going for it apart from the cover and the writer's observations. Dislikable characters, clunky dialogue, a non story.

Very poor

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I have much enjoyed several of Tessa Hadley’s previous titles, but I found this one, filmic, vivid and well read as it is, rather disappointing.

Set in Bristol in the late 1940s after WW2, Moira and her younger student sister Evelyn meet some unlikeable men at an unenjoyable party. One of them, the older, once-married Siinden, manages to entice them to another party in the well-off Sneyd Park area of the city where Evelyn is enticed upstairs with him and the obvious happens.

As so often with authors recreating the Forties or Fifties, Hadley overdoes the contemporary details, particularly of food and dress. Not all aspects are convincing for the late Forties, however. The sisters’ home is stifling, but it seems unlikely that in the late Forties an over-protective father would be living with his wife and daughters whilst pursuing an open affair with another woman.

It is after all, a novella, I know, but I found it too slight. Having finished it, I felt as though Hadley had given me a slice of good fruit cake, but the rest of the cake wasn’t on offer.

Rather disappointing

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Found the story uninteresting and kept waiting for something to happen. Found the narration unexciting.

Not to my taste

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I’m a great fan of this author and was disappointed with the audible. Perhaps she isn’t the best person to read it. Juliet Stevenson would be ideal. I bought it in an audible sale so not complaining and I’m sure I’ll listen again one day. In the meantime I plan to read the book which I’ve got from the library. I’ve always liked Tessa‘s plot lines and style.

Accessibility

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