"With each new book by Tessa Hadley, I grow more convinced that she's
one of the greatest stylists alive."--Ron Charles, Washington Post**
New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A Parnassus First
Editions Club Pick Powell's Indispensable Book Club Pick A
Washington Post Notable Book A Slate Best Book of the Year A Boston
Globe Best Book of the Year A Bookpage Best Book of the Year
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).
