Overview

A TALE OF A TRAGEDY SEEPING THROUGH GENERATIONS, AND A FAMILY FRACTURED BY HISTORY AND DESIRE On the battlefields of the Crimea, William Gale cradles the still-warm body of his brother. William's experience of war will bring about a change in him that will reverberate through his family over the next two centuries. In the 1970s, William's descendants invite Stephen, a distant relation, to stay in their house in the English countryside - but their golden summer entanglements will end in a shocking fall from grace. Half a century later, a confrontation between the surviving members of the family will culminate in a terrible reckoning.

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Reviews

The characters in Bad Relations are so brilliantly real, so wonderfully compelling at their best, and at their worst, that I can't get them out of my head. A wonderful novel -- Nina Stibbe A writer who seems able to peer directly into the human heart -- John Preston Uncanny, evocative, atmospheric * Sunday Times on 'After the Party' * 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 on 'After the Party' * Profound and moving and completely original, with a storyline that is completely satisfying. It'll be one of those novels that stays in my mind forever... it's a work of art -- Craig Brown on 'After the Party' I finished it in two days flat and I've never read anything quite like it -- Hilary Spurling on 'After the Party' A wonderfully subtle and interesting account of the Mosley women, with a compelling voice -- Linda Grant on 'After the Party'

What if you could write a novel whose main plot points are a death in combat, a suicide and the breakdown of family relations, and make it beautiful? What if you dared not to show the grimmest bits, but let them happen off-stage, while using elegant, beautiful prose to paint the spaces around them? Cressida Connolly is that brave writer and Bad Relations is her latest masterpiece * The Times * Connolly's vivid characterisation, supple prose and striking imagery sweep you along, in an absorbing and affecting saga that uses one family's story to anatomise the different stages of grief * Daily Telegraph * In recent British fiction I can think only of Tessa Hadley who rivals Connolly in exacting such intricate, compelling drama from close-knit families... I don't often wish a book were longer, but this one I did * Observer * Connolly, like Anne Tyler and Tessa Hadley, is a master of fluidly shifting perspectives, a sharply witty observer of social class, and a champion of imaginative empathy * Daily Mail * Bad Relations is an amazing achievement and one of the most satisfying books you're likely to read this year * The Times * A gripping story of love, loss and tragic betrayal * Country and Townhouse * Another fascinating, moving story from the author of After the Party * Good Housekeeping * The plot is neat, tight and unexpected but the novel's deep satisfaction comes from Connolly's total immersion in historical atmosphere and profound understanding of human pain * Literary Review * The characters in Bad Relations are so brilliantly real, so wonderfully compelling at their best, and at their worst, that I can't get them out of my head. A wonderful novel -- Nina Stibbe A writer who seems able to peer directly into the human heart -- John Preston Uncanny, evocative, atmospheric * Sunday Times on 'After the Party' * 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 on 'After the Party' * Profound and moving and completely original, with a storyline that is completely satisfying. It'll be one of those novels that stays in my mind forever... it's a work of art -- Craig Brown on 'After the Party' I finished it in two days flat and I've never read anything quite like it -- Hilary Spurling on 'After the Party' A wonderfully subtle and interesting account of the Mosley women, with a compelling voice -- Linda Grant on 'After the Party'

Author Information

Cressida Connolly is a reviewer and journalist who has written for Vogue, the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Guardian and numerous other publications. Cressida is the author of four books- The Happiest Days, which won the MacMillan/PEN Award, The Rare and the Beautiful, My Former Heart and After the Party, which is currently shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and was a Waterstones Book of the Month. She lives in Worcestershire.

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