Bad Relations

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 . . . ravishing

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

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

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

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

Moving [and] powerful . . . Connolly's vividly drawn characters grapple with trauma, unkindness and greed in an intriguing novel where past actions reverberate in the present

Daily Mirror

Haunting

Observer

This clever novel set across three timelines tells the story of a family haunted by tragedy. A skilfully written, powerful drama

BEST

Masterful . . . a joy to see it garnering the ecstatic reviews it deserves

Polly Samson, author of A Theatre for Dreamers

A ravishing novel from the great family saga-teller Cressida Connolly and an honourable tribute to the past

The Times, Best Books for the Summer

Elegantly written, this subtle, satisfying, well-observed novel is a delight

Country and Town House, Books of 2022

A writer who seems able to peer directly into the human heart

John Preston

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'

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'

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