'Fifteen years after graduating from Harvard, five close friends on the cusp of middle age are still pursuing an elusive happiness, and wondering if they’ve wasted their youthful opportunities. Jules, already a famous actor when she arrived on campus, is changing in mysterious ways but won’t share what is haunting her. Mariam and Rowan, who married young, are struggling with the demands of family life and starting to regret prioritising meaning over wealth in their careers. Eloise, now a professor who studies the psychology of happiness, is troubled by her younger wife’s radical politics. And Jomo, founder of a luxury jewellery company, has been carrying an engagement ring around for months, unsure whether his girlfriend is the one.
'The soul searching begins in earnest at their much-anticipated college reunion weekend on the Harvard campus, when the most infamous member of their class, Frederick - senior advisor and son of the recently elected and loathed US President - turns up dead.
'Old friends often think they know everything about one another, but time has a way of making us strangers to those we love - and to ourselves....' (Publication summary)
'Award-winning author Ceridwen Dovey's latest novel is insightful and innovative.'
At Home with Ceridwen Dovey
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2020
23452168
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Ceridwen Dovey writes fiction, creative non-fiction, and in-depth essays and profiles. Born in South Africa, she grew up between South Africa and Australia, went to Harvard University on scholarship as an undergraduate, and did her postgraduate studies in social anthropology at New York University.
'Her debut novel, Blood Kin, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Award and selected for the U.S. National Book Foundation’s prestigious "5 Under 35" honours list.
'Her second book, Only the Animals, won the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award, the Steele Rudd Award for a short story collection in the Queensland Literary Awards, and was co-winner of the People's Choice Award for Fiction at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.
'Her 2018 novel, In the Garden of the Fugitives was longlisted for the 2019 ABIA Awards. Life After Truth, published in 2020, is her latest work.' (Production introduction)
'If class reunions didn’t exist, writers would have to invent them. Saturated in nostalgia, they positively brim with the potential for havoc.' (Introduction)
'If class reunions didn’t exist, writers would have to invent them. Saturated in nostalgia, they positively brim with the potential for havoc.' (Introduction)
'Award-winning author Ceridwen Dovey's latest novel is insightful and innovative.'
'‘That’s music to my ears!’ says Ceridwen Dovey, when I tell her that I think her new novel is like a love-child between Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Life After Truth is set over three intense days as the class of ‘03 meet for a reunion weekend on the Harvard campus. It’s a wonderful, compulsively readable novel following five friends—Jules, Mariam, Rowan, Eloise and Jomo—on the cusp of middle-age. During their weekend of soul-searching and reminiscing, the most infamous member of their class, Frederick Reese [senior advisor and son of the recently elected and loathed US president—sound familiar?], turns up dead. ‘I found it a really fun book to write,’ Dovey says. ‘It’s probably the most fun I’ve had writing ever.’' (Introduction)
At Home with Ceridwen Dovey
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2020
23452168
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Ceridwen Dovey writes fiction, creative non-fiction, and in-depth essays and profiles. Born in South Africa, she grew up between South Africa and Australia, went to Harvard University on scholarship as an undergraduate, and did her postgraduate studies in social anthropology at New York University.
'Her debut novel, Blood Kin, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Award and selected for the U.S. National Book Foundation’s prestigious "5 Under 35" honours list.
'Her second book, Only the Animals, won the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award, the Steele Rudd Award for a short story collection in the Queensland Literary Awards, and was co-winner of the People's Choice Award for Fiction at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.
'Her 2018 novel, In the Garden of the Fugitives was longlisted for the 2019 ABIA Awards. Life After Truth, published in 2020, is her latest work.' (Production introduction)
