We Were Very Merry

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.

‘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