GHOSTS FROM THE PAST

LATE IN THE DAY, BY TESSA HADLEY, CENTRES AROUND A CLOSE-KNIT GROUP OF FRIENDS FACING A SUDDEN DEATH AND UNRESOLVED CONFLICTS

Tessa Hadley’s compelling new novel, Late in the Day, is a subtle, delicate evocation of modern life. Hadley has always been interested in relections and oppositions; here, exploring the dynamics between two married couples as their needs and desires shift over the years, she gently brings out the contrasts between the characters, as in a series of paintings or tableaux.

The book begins with a death, which sends out unexpected ripples into this apparently well-heeled and well-settled group of friends. As ever, Hadley’s writing is precise yet mysterious: the hospital is “lit up in the night like a ship at sea.”

To learn how we reached this particular, devastating moment, we must delve into the characters’ pasts. Lydia, the bright daughter of a publican, and middleclass, questioning Christine, had been best friends since they were rebellious grammar school girls together, reading the Communist Manifesto in break time. At university, they fell for a pair of public school boys: rich, conident, Zach, and quiet, complicated Alex, the son of a

Czech dissident. Each of them bears the weight of their families and circumstances, trying to forge an identity for themselves through creative processes, and looking for the love that will sustain them throughout life. They dance around each other: Zach and Lydia end up married and well off, Christine and Alex married and not.

Zach’s money lands him an art gallery, and Lydia doesn’t have to work. Christine abandons her PHD to become a painter, while Alex, conversely, stops writing his promising poetry and becomes a primary school teacher.

Late in the Day is a nuanced and supple account of how far-reaching historical events affect us all; how social class can be both a prison and an escape, and how art makes us human.