LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
The party is where it all unravels and where the dark secret between rich, aristocratic Ben and poor, middle-class Martin is exposed. We are kept very much in the dark about the secret until nearly the end of the book. The story is set in different time zones and locations. We start with Martin being questioned by the police just after the party.
We flick to school and university days. We come back to Martin’s wife Lucy’s diary she is told to keep in the psychiatric unit. We move to the party itself and so on as the mystery builds and the two young lives are mapped out. Martin plots his way into Ben’s life with care until the perfect opportunity arrives and Ben is suddenly very much in Martin’s debt.
So the friendship builds throughout their young lives, careers and wives, they are ‘best friends’ until suddenly they are not. The message is very much “If you’re lucky enough to be born ‘into it’ you are made, if you are not then you are wasting your life trying to break in”.
This is dark stuff. All the way through doom hangs over the pages. Will Martin get his revenge? In an elegant read you’ll be hooked finding out. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
July 2017 Book of the Month.
Reviewed by Sarah BroadhurstSarah Broadhurst spent her early working life in the book trade in both retail and wholesale until the arrival of children forced her to look for freelance work she could do from…
More reviews by Sarah Broadhurst About The Party
A gripping story of obsession and betrayal, privilege and hypocrisy, set in the unassailable heart of the British establishment. 'Witty, dark and compelling' Sebastian Faulks 'As the train pressed on, I realised that my life was in the process of taking a different direction, plotted according to a new constellation. Because, although I didn't know it yet, I was about to meet Ben and nothing would ever be the same again.' Martin Gilmour is an outsider.
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The Party Synopsis
A gripping story of obsession and betrayal, privilege and hypocrisy, set in the unassailable heart of the British establishment. 'Witty, dark and compelling' Sebastian Faulks 'As the train pressed on, I realised that my life was in the process of taking a different direction, plotted according to a new constellation. Because, although I didn't know it yet, I was about to meet Ben and nothing would ever be the same again.' Martin Gilmour is an outsider.
When he wins a scholarship to Burtonbury School, he doesn't wear the right clothes or speak with the right kind of accent. But then he meets the dazzling, popular and wealthy Ben Fitzmaurice, and gains admission to an exclusive world. Soon Martin is enjoying tennis parties and Easter egg hunts at the Fitzmaurice family's estate, as Ben becomes the brother he never had.
But Martin has a secret. He knows something about Ben, something he will never tell. It is a secret that will bind the two of them together for the best part of 25 years.
At Ben's 40th birthday party, the great and the good of British society are gathering to celebrate in a haze of champagne, drugs and glamour. Amid the hundreds of guests - the politicians, the celebrities, the old-money and newly rich - Martin once again feels that disturbing pang of not-quite belonging. His wife, Lucy, has her reservations too.
There is disquiet in the air. But Ben wouldn't do anything to damage their friendship. Would he?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780008194260 |
| Publication date: |
13th July 2017 |
| Author: |
Elizabeth Day |
| Publisher: |
Fourth Estate Ltd an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Primary Genre |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Elizabeth Day Press Reviews
'Witty, dark and compelling' Sebastian Faulks
'I practically murdered this book in an evening I loved it so much. The Party is a terrifying, hilarious, brilliantly written original with a wit to die for'
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
'Superb - clever, gripping, psychologically acute
Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us
'Think Brideshead Revisited meets The Talented Mr Ripley with a dash of The Riot Club. I couldn't put it down'
Louise O'Neill, author of Asking For It
'As sharp, stylish and witty as the perfect guest. Beware: you'll be up far too late'
Lucie Whitehouse, author of Before We Met
'Elizabeth Day's latest novel is sinister and seductive and nothing short of breathtaking'
Francesca Seagal, author of The Innocents
'The Party is a compelling read, but it's a lot more than a page turner. Like Martin, the protagonist, we as readers are sucked into the lives of the privileged few and, like Martin, in turn tittilated, appalled, bewitched and ultimately punched in the stomach by their casual cruelty. We may have seen a hundred stories like this on the news, but Elizabeth Day's perfectly pitched dialogue and vivid prose brings it all to life'
Catherine Chanter, author of The Well
Author
About Elizabeth Day
Elizabeth Day is the author of three previous novels. Her acclaimed debut Scissors, Paper, Stone, won a Betty Trask Award and Home Fires was an Observer book of the year. Her third, Paradise City, was named one of the best novels of 2015 in the Evening Standard. She is also an award-winning journalist and has written extensively for the Telegraph, The Times, the Guardian, the Observer, the Mail on Sunday, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle.
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