Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. It takes a bit of distance and time to be

able to look at big shifts in our culture, right? Like between one set of years, we were, say,

wide-eyed and optimistic, and then between the next set of years, we were cynical and glum.

And these moods and mores, and, you know,

vibes are reflected in our fashion and TV and music and all that. But because it takes time to

see these patterns, it's hard to tell when you're right in the middle of the shift itself.

Today's book, Free Love, is set in 1960s London, and while it starts with a bit of adultery,

it's really about these people in the middle of a cultural shift, the fall of the respectable

bourgeois, stiff, upper lip type folks.

And author Tessa Hadley tells NPR's Alyssa Nadwarnie in this interview that, while she was

never of these people, she loves

writing about them because she doesn't think they really exist anymore.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

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It's the late 1960s outside London, and a bourgeois couple in their 40s open up their home to a dinner guest, a self-righteous, aloof young man in his 20s.

After dinner, in a moment of spontaneity, the housewife, Phyllis Fletcher, shares a secret kiss in the garden with the young visitor named Nikki.

That's how Tessa Hadley's latest book,

Free Love, begins. The Kiss sets off a series of consequences that unearth family secrets spanning multiple generations. In the unraveling, the novel explores idea of youth,

sexuality, innocence, and awakening to new ideas. Tessa Hadley joins us now. Welcome.

Lovely to be with you, Alyssa.

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