The Master Bedroom
By Tessa Hadley
(Henry Holt and Co., Hardcover, 9780805080766, 352pp.)
Publication Date: July 24, 2007
Other Editions of This Title: Paperback, Paperback
Categories: Literary
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A single woman at loose ends becomes the object of two men's affections--a father and his teenage son--in this sly, richly drawn novel After more than twenty years in London, Kate Flynn has returned to her family home in Wales to care for her aging mother. Having cast off her academic career, she is unmoored, and when she runs into a childhood friend, David Roberts, at a concert, she finds herself falling for him, although she knows she's grasping at anything to fill the sudden emptiness of her life.
For his part, David's marriage isn't as solid as it looks--his wife, Suzie, has begun acting strangely, moving out of their bedroom, neglecting their children, and disappearing for days at a time--and he begins to seek refuge with Kate from the newfound chaos of his life.
David's seventeen-year-old son, Jamie, is also drawn to Kate's eccentricity and her strange, glamorous old house full of books and music and history. As both father and son set about their parallel courtships, Tessa Hadley's intricate, graceful novel explores the tangled web of connections between parents and children, revealing how each generation replays the stories of the one that came before, in new and sometimes startling patterns.
Tessa Hadley teaches literature and creative writing at Bath Spa University. She is the author of two novels, Everything Will Be All Right and Accidents in the Home, both available from Picador. Accidents in the Home was long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker. She lives in Cardiff, Wales.
"An elegant, perceptive novel, shot through with deliciously dry wit."—Zoe Heller, author of Notes on a Scandal
“A lovely, subtly teasing writer…Hadley’s observations of the ebb and flow of female desire and frustration are reminiscent of Virginia Woolf, but she taps sensual undercurrents where Woolf wouldn’t have dipped her toe.”—Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review
“Elegantly observed…Hadley’s smart, often prickly characters remind us that love is never simple, and happiness rarely wins without sorrow.”—Emily Chenoweth, People (four stars)
“Lands squarely in the sweet spot where popular fiction and highbrow literature meet…Hadley’s writing is outright gorgeous, without a misstep or false note.”—Natalie Danford, Newsday
“Exposes the volatility behind buttoned-up family life with wince-inducing clarity…Hadley proves to be an extremely droll writer, one who can dole out acidic observations worthy of British authors such as Rachel Cusk.”—Nita Rao, Time Out New York
“Hadley has a knack for portraying the dysfunctional, often stagnant lives of the infuriatingly repressed.”—Alexis Burling, The Washington Post (MediaMix)
“Tessa Hadley’s third novel is her most ambitious and successful to date…Hadley has a talent for endowing each of her characters with an especially robust point of view.”
—Andrea Walker, Bookforum
“Melancholy and starkly emotive, Hadley’s enervating tale evokes the raw drama that lies at the emotional nexus between friends and lovers, husbands and wives, parents and children.”—Carol Haggas, Booklist
“Dreamy and thoughtful.”—Publishers Weekly
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