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'I always wanted to be friends with both my sisters. Perhaps that was the source, really, of all the troubles of my life...'
It is the summer of 1938 and Phyllis Forrester has returned to England after years abroad. Moving into her sister's grand country house, she soon finds herself entangled in a new world of idealistic beliefs and seemingly innocent friendships. Fevered talk of another war infiltrates their small, privileged circle, giving way to a thrilling solution: a great and charismatic leader, who will restore England to its former glory.
At a party hosted by her new friends, Phyllis lets down her guard for a single moment, with devastating consequences. Years later, Phyllis, alone and embittered, recounts the dramatic events which led to her imprisonment and changed the course of her life forever. 'Wonderfully subtle and compelling' Linda Grant
'Uncanny, evocative, atmospheric' Sunday Times
'Connolly is a terrifically subtle writer... [she] slyly sweeps her readers into the period drama as tensions tauten between families and social classes' Daily Telegraph
'Wonderful, tragicomic... beautifully researched' The Times
Reviews
Cressida Connolly's flawless new novel After the Party, for all its darkness, seems suffused with the "soft, buttery" light of an English summer afternoon. But in June of 1938, infernal shadows lengthen. Ms. Connolly is a master, revealing character while sustaining an effect of lightness and ease. We follow Phyllis through an indolent prewar season beautifully conjured, often in heady, sensual detail. Ms. Connolly is too astute and compassionate a novelist to provide neat conclusions. The novel leaves us with the mysterious sense of having inhabited a time and a life whose emotional gravity holds us still.