Review
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“Marvelous…. Every situation captivates; every carefully
chosen word rings true.” (People)
“These consummately crafted tales reveal Hadley’s unflinching
audacity and her peerless gift for revealing ourselves as we are,
not as we wish to be.” (Oprah.com)
“It is impossible to overstate how much I admire the work of
Tessa Hadley; her mastery of the smallest gestures on the page is
breathtaking and her ability to weave a symphonic whole time
after time thrilling. Every story in this collection is
beautiful, precise, expansive, and a joy.” (Cynthia D’Aprix
Sweeney, author of The Nest)
“Her meticulously observed, extraordinarily perceptive stories
are as satisfying as Alice Munro’s. Yes, Hadley is that
good…. Instantly immersive…. Unlike many short story writers, who
serve up slices of life cut so thin you’re left craving more,
Hadley offers both rich complexity and satisfying closure.”
(Heller McAlpin, NPR)
“Like Murakami, Tessa Hadley’s marvelous new collection, ‘Bad
Dreams and Other Stories’ scrutinizes difficult, messy
relationships…. Hadley demonstrates how brief, powerful
relationships can forever change people…. Deliciously, Hadley’s
characters also practice the art of deceit, unaware how stacked
lies will eventually topple over onto them.” (Don Waters, San
Francisco Chronicle )
“Quietly explosive short stories that reveal, with unsparing
precision, the epic drama simmering beneath the mundanity of
everyday life…. Achingly lovely, though never sentimental,
Hadley’s collection renders common lives with exquisite grace.”
(Kirkus, starred review)
“Remarkably precise and perceptive…. In subtly inful and
observant prose, Hadley writes brilliantly of the words and
gestures that pass unnoticed ‘in the intensity of [the] present’
but echo without cease.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
“Masterful…. Each story is more memorable than the next as Hadley
seduces readers with a reassuring gentleness that craftily covers
the steely danger that lies within each flawed and fragile
relationship.” (Booklist)
“Hadley is so inful, such a lovely writer, that she pulls
you right into the tangle of wires that connect and trip up the
stressed siblings. She makes you feel for these imperfect people,
want to scold them, and ultimately accept them as they are. Just
like family.” (Kim Hubbard, People, Book of the week, on The
Past)
“Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book. She writes with
authority, and with delicacy: she explores nuance, but speaks
plainly; she is one of those writers a reader trusts.” (Hilary
Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, on The Past)
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From the Back Cover
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The author of six critically accled novels, Tessa Hadley has
proved herself to be a champion of revealing the hidden depths in
the deceptively simple. In these short stories, it’s the ordinary
things that turn out to be the most extraordinary: the history of
a length of fabric or a forgotten jacket.
Two sisters quarrel over an inheritance and a new baby; a child
awake in the night explores the familiar rooms of her home, made
strange by the darkness; a housekeeper caring for a helpless old
man uncovers secrets from his past. The first steps into a
turning point and a new life are made so easily and carelessly:
each of these stories illuminates crucial moments of transition
often imperceptible to the protagonists.
A girl accepts a lift in a car from some older boys; a young
woman reads the diaries she discovers while housesitting. Small
acts have large consequences, some that can reverberate across
decades; private fantasies can affect other people, for better
and worse. The real things that happen to people, the accidents
that befall them, are every bit as mysterious as their longings
and dreams.
Bad Dreams and Other Stories demonstrates yet again that Hadley
“puts on paper a consciousness so visceral, so fully realized, it
heightens and expands your own. She is a true master” (Lily King,
author of Euphoria).
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