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Discover the seductive novel about one woman's sexual and intellectual awakening in 1960s London from the bestselling author of Late in the Day.
1967. While London comes alive with the new youth revolution, the suburban Fischer family seems to belong to an older world of conventional stability: pretty, dutiful homemaker Phyllis is married to Roger, a devoted father with a career in the Foreign Office. Their children are Colette, a bookish teenager, and Hugh, the golden boy.
But when the twenty-something son of an old friend pays the Fischers a visit one hot summer evening, and kisses Phyllis in the dark garden after dinner, something in her catches fire. Newly awake to the world, Phyllis makes a choice that defies all expectations of her as a wife and a mother.
With scalpel-sharp insight, Tessa Hadley explores her characters' inner worlds, laying bare their fears and longings. Free Love is an irresistible exploration of romantic love, sexual freedom and living out the truest and most meaningful version of our lives.
'Tessa Hadley might be my new favourite writer. She just 'gets' people, their flaws, their ignoble impulses, the transcendent moments... she is wonderful.' Marian Keyes, author of Again, Rachel
About the author
Tessa Hadley is the author of eight highly praised novels,
Accidents in the Home, which was longlisted for the
Guardian First Book Award,
Everything Will Be All Right,
The Master Bedroom,
The London Train, Clever Girl,
The Past,
Late in the Day, Free Love and three collections of stories,
Sunstroke,
Married Love and
Bad Dreams. She won the Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction in 2016,
The Past won the Hawthornden Prize for 2016, and
Bad Dreams won the 2018 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her stories appear regularly in the
New Yorker.
Summary
Discover the seductive novel about one woman's sexual and intellectual awakening in 1960s London from the bestselling author of Late in the Day.
1967. While London comes alive with the new youth revolution, the suburban Fischer family seems to belong to an older world of conventional stability: pretty, dutiful homemaker Phyllis is married to Roger, a devoted father with a career in the Foreign Office. Their children are Colette, a bookish teenager, and Hugh, the golden boy.
But when the twenty-something son of an old friend pays the Fischers a visit one hot summer evening, and kisses Phyllis in the dark garden after dinner, something in her catches fire. Newly awake to the world, Phyllis makes a choice that defies all expectations of her as a wife and a mother.
With scalpel-sharp insight, Tessa Hadley explores her characters' inner worlds, laying bare their fears and longings. Free Love is an irresistible exploration of romantic love, sexual freedom and living out the truest and most meaningful version of our lives.
'Tessa Hadley might be my new favourite writer. She just 'gets' people, their flaws, their ignoble impulses, the transcendent moments... she is wonderful.' Marian Keyes, author of Again, Rachel
Report
So real and humane and utterly transporting; fresh and yet, with the feeling of a beloved classic. Meg Mason, author of SORROW AND BLISS
