We Were Very Merry
Lillie’s story continues, in the extraordinary sequel to The Essence of an Hour.
Click here to read an extended interview with the author on the Valley Press blog.
Twenty-three-year-old Lillie Carrigan has left behind the America of her childhood to study at Oxford, dismissing her past as she tries to write and become a woman. In the autumn of 1946, she meets a man over whiskey and cigarettes at Balliol College – a man who will become her husband.
Over the course of five years, Lillie travels from England to Paris, the Côte d’Azur, New York City and the Hamptons, her marriage unravelling along the way but her memories remaining steadfast as her uninvited yet constant companions.
Haunted by past tragedies and scarred by fresh misadventures, Lillie once again shares her story and lays bare her sins.
Praise for We Were Very Merry
‘An intimate character study and honest portrait of a marriage, this sequel, with its eloquent prose and sharp dialogue, does not disappoint.’
– J.M. Monaco, author of How We Remember
‘A forensic portrait of post-war marriage. In prose that never drops a stitch, Susan Furber has delivered another triumph in this insightful, moving and utterly compelling novel.’
– Christine Dwyer Hickey, 2020 Walter Scott Prize winner
‘We Were Very Merry tells the story of a modern marriage in which no one is at fault since no one appears to have done anything wrong. The attempts to make one’s self intelligible to another reveal the grief and regret inherent in the past, and despite a well-earned resolution, the exorbitant price of perception.’
– Susanna Moore, author of In the Cut
‘Readers: here’s your next binge-read! In We Were Very Merry, we meet up again with Lillie Carrigan – the deeply felt heroine of Susan Furber’s captivating World War II novel The Essence of an Hour – as she falls in love “for the second time,” and moves forward into married life with her brilliant husband, “the most beautiful man…ever seen in the flesh.” The young couple’s post-war life in Paris and London is an exuberant era that spins Lillie into her truest adulthood and demands her most honest confrontation with her past. The European urban milieu Furber creates is a world where you’ll want to linger.’
– Anna Monardo, author of The Courtyard of Dreams and Falling In Love with Natassia
About the Author
Susan Furber was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1992. Her debut novel, The Essence of an Hour, was published by Valley Press in 2021. Susan is an editor and lives in London with her husband.
Vital Statistics
Imprint: Valley Press
Edition: First (May 2023)
Paperback ISBN: 9781915606129
Catalogue number: VP0218
Page count: 288
Trim size: 198x129mm
