Tessa Hadley: The Past

Tessa Hadley's book, The Past, has at its center a summer vacation home, and the four middle-aged siblings who come together to decide whether to sell it or not. Having lost their mother, they reunite at the home and begin the long process of re-examining the past and their relationships with each –- all to decide what the house means to them individually and as a family. Hadley considers her book something of a comedy, but really what she has accomplished is the modernization of the classic British novel of estates, inheritance and loss of empire.

Read an excerpt from The Past.