Late in the Day
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Late in the Day
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Narrated by:
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Abigail Thaw
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By:
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Tessa Hadley
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been close friends since they first met in their twenties. Thirty years later Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia. Zach is dead.
In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach was the sanest and kindest of them all, the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. But instead of loss bringing them closer, the three of them find over the following months that it warps their relationships, as old entanglements and grievances rise from the past, and love and sorrow give way to anger and bitterness.
Late in the Day explores the tangled webs at the centre of our most intimate relationships, to expose how beneath the seemingly dependable arrangements we make for our lives lie infinite alternate configurations. Ingeniously moving between past and present and through the intricacies of her characters’ thoughts and interactions, Tessa Hadley once again shows that she has ‘become one of this country’s great contemporary novelists. She is equipped with an armoury of techniques and skills that may yet secure her a position as the greatest of them.’ (Anthony Quinn Guardian)
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What listeners say about Late in the Day
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rachel Redford
- 22-02-19
Time changes everything
I liked listening to this - it's impressive how Tessa Hadley kept my interest as she delved more and more deeply into this married quartet of best friends. Only a prolonged trip to Venice bored me - it felt like Hadley indulging herself in a recent visit to Venice.
It all starts with a phone call from Christine's best friend since school, Lydia, one evening. Lydia's husband Zachary is dead: Zachary the vibrant, energetic, bright one has had a heart attack and is unbelievably dead. Of course Lydia in her distress must move in with Christine and Alex.Can that work?
The rest of the novel weaves backwards and forwards in time, fleshing out the very close relationship between the four of them. Hadley does it all at such a leisurely pace with such delicacy, such insights into intimacy and marriage, the passing of time, the dependency of children and wives, bereavement, loss, letting go......that the quartet become totally real. When it all suddenly stops, it's quite a wrench.
Beautifully read - totally in tune with the content. A lovely voice from Abigail Thaw.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- wazzerk
- 13-05-22
Beautiful writing and interesting story
Excellent writing - requires concentration on walks - you can’t just drift off into your own thoughts . Through her writing you get an insight into the characters and their interwoven complexities and overall makes a very enjoyable listen
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Nick Keith
- 26-05-20
Late in the Day
The most recent book by Tessa Hadley, a late-developing novelist, has strong characters with well scripted tensions between them. This is the story of two couples and their children - how they cope after the sudden death in the opening scene of the most genial member of the four. The author weaves present day problems with flashbacks to how they met when young. The husbands and wives are best friends. You become eager to discover how the relationships are strained in the past and how they unravel after the death.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- debbieg
- 19-04-19
Brilliant - performance and writing
Now want to buy the print copy to read again. Must say Abigail’s narration was nothing short of iconic - in the Juliette Stevenson league. Certainly not for the beach readers but a breath of Fresh air for the more literary reader. Doubt if I’ll read a better book this year .
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 20-06-20
Beautifully written
A character study of the complexities of relationships and how people often get what they want in subtle hardly discernible ways.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Book worm
- 21-06-23
Good read
It my first tessa Hadley book, and I enjoyed the intrigue between friends through time.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Metropolly
- 22-08-20
Tedious
Enjoy hearing people analyse their own dreams, or describe at length their reaction to art? Feel kinship for entitled middle class women whose main achievement is to be someone's wife, and panic at the thought of paying their own way? Then this is the book for you. A waste of fine writing
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Monsaraz
- 13-04-19
Disappointing and dreary
I came to this with high hopes as Tessa Hadley is sometimes spoken of as the best UK writer today. This completely escaped me. Competently written but not more And I found the story of middle class NorthLondoners dreary and unengaging. Not helped by the flat delivery of the reader.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Judith taylor
- 03-11-19
So disappointed
I really struggled to get through this and by the end, I really couldn't have cared less about the vacuous and venal quartet of characters. Dreary and boring.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- P.A.Norton
- 22-10-21
Sexist pretentious drivel
Rarely decide not to finish a book but this is an exception . It dismissed real jobs ( teaching, nursing)which displays a lack of understanding or research which gave the story little depth. The sexist is astounding- all the way through.
Appalling .
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