After the Funeral and Other Stories

ISBN: 0593469844

Author: Hadley, Tessa

Condition: New

A masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships-"a revelation for aficionados of the form, as vibrant and knowing as the best of Hadley's celebrated career." -Washington PostHadley is pure magic and After the Funeral is a triumph.-Lily King, New York Times best-selling author of Writers & Lovers and EuphoriaHadley brings her eloquent prose and her psychological acuity to the relationships-between siblings, friends, lovers, parents, and children-that shape us and change us, that call into question our view of ourselves and our place in the world. -The New YorkerIn each of these twelve stories, small events have huge consequences. Heloises father died in a car crash when she was a little girl; at a dinner party in her forties, she meets someone connected to that long-ago tragedy. Two estranged sisters cross paths at a posh hotel and pretend not to recognize each other. Janies bohemian mother plans to marry a man close to Janies own age-everything changes when an accident interrupts the wedding party. A daughter caring for her elderly mother during the pandemic becomes obsessed with the woman next door; in the wake of his best friends death, a man must reassess his affair with the friends wife. Cecilia, a teenager, wakes one morning in Florence on vacation with her parents and sees them for the first time through disenchanted eyes.As psychologically astute as they are emotionally rich, these stories illuminate the enduring conflicts between responsibility and freedom, power and desire, convention and subversion, reality and dreams. A vital addition to Tessa Hadleys celebrated body of work, After the Funeral and Other Stories showcases what Colm Tóibín describes as "Tessa Hadley's extraordinary skill at making both surface life and deep interiors come fully alive."