Bad Relations
- Published: 19 May 2022
- ISBN: 9780241537732
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 288
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
A compelling family saga
Sunday Times
A gripping story of love, loss and tragic betrayal
Country & Townhouse
A wonderfully subtle and interesting account of the Mosley women, with a compelling voice
Linda Grant on 'After the Party'
A writer who seems able to peer directly into the human heart
John Preston
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'
Fascinating, moving
Good Housekeeping
I finished it in two days flat and I've never read anything quite like it
Hilary Spurling 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'
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
Uncanny, evocative, atmospheric
Sunday Times on 'After the Party'