The Party: the irresistible book from the Sunday Times bestselling author

· Random House
1 review
Ebook
128
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

An exhilarating winter tale of two sisters drawn into a new life of risk, passion and possibility.

‘Tessa Hadley is my favourite author’ KATE ATKINSON

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.


*A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*

‘Few writers give me such consistent pleasure’ ZADIE SMITH


‘A glimmering tale of two sisters’ FT


‘Hadley’s extraordinary skill [is] making both surface life and deep interiors come fully alive’ COLM TÓIBÍN

An exhilarating winter tale of two sisters drawn into a new life of risk, passion and possibility. ‘Tessa Hadley is my favourite author’ KATE ATKINSON 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 pu...

Ratings and reviews

1 review
Richard Bentley
May 26, 2026
Interestingly and expertly depicts post war attitudes to sex and class in Britain of the 1950's.
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About the author

Tessa Hadley is the author of eight highly praised novels: Accidents in the Home, which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Everything Will Be All Right, The Master Bedroom, The London Train, Clever Girl, The Past, Late in the Day and Free Love, and four collections of stories: Sunstroke, Married Love, Bad Dreams and After the Funeral. She won the Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction in 2016, The Past won the Hawthornden Prize for 2016 and she has twice been awarded the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, for 2018 and for 2024. Her stories appear regularly in the New Yorker.
Tessa Hadley is the author of eight highly praised novels: Accidents in the Home, which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Everything Will Be All Right, The Master Bedroom, The London Train, Clever Girl, The Past, Late in the Day and Free Love, and four collections of stories: Suns...

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