After more than twenty years in London, Kate Flynn has abandoned her career as an academic, rented her apartment in the city, and moved back to live with her mother in the grand old house beside a lake where she grew up. Bored and lonely, Kate meets a childhood friend, David Roberts, at the opera. David is married, but Kate finds herself falling for him against her better judgment.
At the same time, David's seventeen-year-old son is visiting Kate's house in secret, attracted by her eccentricity, her wit, and her shelves full of old books and music. Though she knows the risks, Kate cannot quite resist either man. As both father and son set about their parallel courtships, Tessa Hadley's intricate, graceful novel,The Master Bedroom, discovers the anxieties of adulthood, and the hazards of refusing to grow up.
TESSA HADLEYteaches literature and creative writing at Bath Spa University. She is the author of
Sunstroke and Other Stories,
Everything Will Be All Right, and
Accidents in the Home.
Sunstroke and Other Storieswas a
New York TimesNotable Book of 2007, and
Accidents in the Homewas long-listed for
The Guardian's First Book Award. Her short stories have appeared in
The New Yorker.She lives in Cardiff, Wales.
About this Guide
The following author biography and list of questions aboutThe Master Bedroomare intended as resources to aid individual readers and book groups who would like to learn more about the author and this book. We hope that this guide will provide you a starting place for discussion, and suggest a variety of perspectives from which you might approachThe Master Bedroom.
A chess game of slow-burn erotic maneuvers . . . Hadley is a lovely, subtly teasing writer. The New York Times Book Review
Truly beautiful prose. Hadley's writing is outright gorgeous, without a misstep or false note. . . . Both artful and realistic and most of al²
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