Life After Truth

by Ceridwen Dovey

'A sublime gem of a novel' Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites 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. 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. Jules, already a famous actor when she arrived on campus, is changing in mysterious ways but won't share what is haunting her. 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...

Paperback

Published January 20, 2022

About the author

Ceridwen Dovey grew up in South Africa and Australia, studied as an undergraduate at Harvard, and now lives in Sydney. Her first novel, Blood Kin, was translated into fifteen languages and selected for the US National Book Foundation’s prestigious ‘5 Under 35’ award. J.M. Coetzee called it ‘A fable of the arrogance of power beneath whose dreamlike surface swirl currents of complex sensuality.' Her second work of fiction, Only the Animals, will be published by Penguin in 2014 (Australia) and Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2015 (USA).

Reviews

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yawn.

[Sare W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set at Harvard University, during Reunion Weekend, we meet the 2003 class gathering for their 15 year reunion. The class included a famous actress and the son of the now American President. This novel follows five friends navigating the weekend's many parties and events, while each wonders if they've taken the right path in life.

The book starts with a flash forward, to the final day, where someone dies. The narrative then returns to the beginning of the reunion festivities and is told chronologically. Alternating points of view, we see how each of the friends question their current life - relationships/family, career/success, aging and religion - and reminisce their university memories.

Definitely not a thriller or murder mystery, this slow burn novel is a meditation on middle-adulthood. The book could be dismissed as a bunch of privileged folk spending the weekend in parties and gilded self-pity, however the characters' smugness and jealousy is tempered with self-awareness and privilege-guilt, so it instead reads as self-conscious satire. And it is packed with insightful gems about power, happiness and the contrast between inner and outer worlds.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t the elite college murder mystery/thriller that I anticipated based on the blurb. The murder was incidental to what was really a story of a bunch of 30 somethings pondering what life was about, at their 15th college reunion.

There were some interesting insights on parenting, relationships and happiness but nothing much happened. Although I related to some of the characters and liked the clear writing style, I found myself skim reading to get to the end because I was a little bored - there was too much focus on Rowan, the perfect new-age guy with the perfect marriage.

Easy enough to read though and the characters were likeable. Plus I learned a bit about post-humanism (?!?!) which seems like a theory only rich people with no kids have time to develop and pursue. And this is definitely a story about filthy rich people and privilege.

[Anna Preas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would be a good pallet cleanser after reading something scary or very heavy.. quick read. Nothing to write home about but I enjoyed it!