Synopses & Reviews
The profoundly different choices of a mother and her daughter infuse this rich, expansive novel with both intimate detail and wide resonance
When Joyce Stevenson is thirteen, her family moves to the south of England to live with their aunt Vera. Joyce's mother, Lil, is a widow; Vera has a husband who keeps his suits in the wardrobe but spends evenings at another house nearby. While the two sisters couldn't be more different-Vera, a teacher, has unquestioning belief in the powers of education and reason; Lil puts her faith in séances-they work together to form a tight-knit family.
Joyce sees that there is something missing in their lives: men. She doesn't want to end up like her aunt Vera, rejected by her husband. Joyce discovers art at school: she falls in love with the Impressionists and, eventually, with one of her teachers. In spite of the temptations of the sixties, she is determined to make her marriage and motherhood a success. When Joyce's daughter, Zoe, grows up and has a baby of her own, however, she proves to be impatient with domestic life and chooses a dramatically different path.
Spanning five decades of extraordinary changes in women's lives, Everything Will Be All Right explores the complicated relationships of a family. The young ones of each generation are sure that they can correct the mistakes of their parents; the truth, of course, is more opaque. Intricate and insightful, Everything Will Be All Right firmly establishes Tessa Hadley among the great contemporary observers of the human mind and heart.
Review
"[A] complex, intelligent family epic....[E]xpertly captures the texture of daily existence and the struggle of three memorable women to make their way in the world." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A perceptive perusal of the timeless choices faced by each generation by a marvelously gifted writer." Booklist
Review
"[Hadley's] gift as a writer is so considerable that her characters' revelations and predicaments linger in the mind long after her narrative has darted off in other directions." The New York Times
Review
"Familiar fictional territory, but Hadley masters the details with conviction and brings to the emotional landscape an intriguing perspective ofher own." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Spanning five decades of extraordinary changes in women's lives, Everything Will Be All Right explores the complicated relationships of a family. The young ones of each generation are sure that they can correct the mistakes of their parents; the truth, of course, is more opaque.
Synopsis
When Joyce Stevenson is thirteen, her family moves to the south of England to live with their aunt Vera. Vera and her sister Lil aren't at all alike. Vera, a teacher, has unquestioning belief in the powers of education and reason; Lil puts her faith in seances. Joyce is determined to be different: she falls in love with art (and her art teacher). Spanning five decades of extraordinary change in women's lives,
Everything Will Be All Right explores the tangled history of one family and the disasters, hopes, compromises, and ambitions of successive generations.
About the Author
Tessa Hadley teaches literature and creative writing at Bath Spa University College. Her first novel,
Accidents in the Home, which was excerpted in
The New Yorker, was longlisted for The Guardian's First Book Award. She lives in Cardiff, Wales.