Among Friends
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Pan Macmillan
Published:26th Jun '25
Should be back in stock very soon
What begins as a celebratory weekend between two families soon devolves into a reckoning of sins, past and present, as an act of violence shatters their finely made world.
'Every sentence keeps you hanging in the air, waiting for the next punch to the gut' - Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace
'Like a cold gin and tonic on a hot day' - The Washington Post
'Packs a huge emotional punch. I couldn’t put it down' - Daily Mail
'A writer of lavish talents . . . properly page-turning' - Daily Telegraph
Four friends. A betrayal that should shatter their seemingly perfect lives. But will they let it?
Amos and Emerson have been friends for more than thirty years. Despite vastly different backgrounds, the two now form an enviable portrait of middle age: their wives are close, their teenage daughters have grown up together, their days are passed in the comfortable languor of New York City wealth. They share an unbreakable bond, or so they think.
This weekend, however, something is different. After gathering for Emerson’s birthday at his country home, celebration gives way to old rivalries and resentments which erupt in a shocking act of violence, one that threatens to shatter their finely made world.
In its wake, each must choose: between whom and what they love most.
Hal Ebbott's Among Friends explores themes of class, marriage, friendship, and power, as well as the things we tell ourselves to preserve our finely made worlds.
'A powerful, elegant novel that offers unsparing insight into the lives of others' - Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
'An exquisitely crafted family tragedy' - John Irving
'Masterly . . . Ranges from the most exquisite, Jamesian discriminations to the graspable, all-American solidities of Updike and Richard Yates. This is a writer to watch, with excitement and the highest expectations' - John Banville, author of The Sea
'In the way that a forceful intelligence or an infectious voice or a fresh vision can alter how we observe and answer the world, Among Friends brought me into its cool environs and made me engage my days differently. It's no small accomplishment for a first novel, or for any novel' - Richard Ford
A wonderful, sly and subtle novel. Every sentence keeps you hanging in the air, waiting for the next punch to the gut. Wow. -- Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace
In the way that a forceful intelligence or an infectious voice or a fresh vision can alter how we observe and answer the world, Among Friends brought me into its cool environs and made me engage my days differently. It's no small accomplishment for a first novel, or for any novel. -- Richard Ford
Among Friends is a powerful, elegant novel that offers unsparing and lyrically rendered insight into the lives of others -- Claire Lombardo, the New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
Among Friends is smart and nuanced about the damage people are prepared to endure in the name of loyalty and comfort. The deep desire to only hear the story we want, or need, to be true. I was completely drawn in -- Claire Lynch, author of A Family Matter
Among Friends is a masterly debut. Hal Ebbott ranges from the most exquisite, Jamesian discriminations to the graspable, all-American solidities of Updike and Richard Yates. This is a writer to watch, with excitement and the highest expectations -- John Banville, author of The Sea
The violation that befalls these two families has the unalterable destiny a Greek dramatist like Sophocles might have imagined. Hal Ebbott has written an exquisitely crafted family tragedy. -- John Irving
Impressively nuanced . . . Among Friends is a bracingly honest and affectingly intimate depiction of abuse, family dynamics and self-deceit. It is sharply observed and psychologically astute, somehow both passionate and dispassionate, and it upends its characters’ lives so ruthlessly and revealingly that it is hard not to take pleasure in a false facade being finally smashed. * The Guardian *
It’s beautifully written and packs a huge emotional punch. I couldn’t put it down and kept thinking about it long after I finished. Brilliant -- Daily Mail * Daily Mail *
In refined prose that feels like a throwback to mid-20th-century psychological realism, Ebbott lays bare the many ways in which the families harm each other as each character seeks to protect the status quo . . . It's an alluring accomplishment -- Publishers Weekly
Ebbott's voice and language set the book apart from other family dramas * NPR *
Ebbott is obviously a writer of lavish talents in all the old-school virtues of sentence-writing, paragraph-building, dialogue, characterisation, plot and pacing . . . as the properly page-turning repercussions continue, it’s not just the action that darkens, but the whole social setting * Daily Telegraph *
This accomplished debut revolves around two wealthy families . . . simmering tensions and festering rivalries test relationships, but eventually a brutal betrayal threatens to upend lives -- The Economist, Best books of the year so far 2025
Among Friends is utterly engrossing; I’m already begging my friends to read it so we can discuss the ending. -- ELLE, Best books of Summer 2025
Stylish and assured . . . Ebbott’s prose is honed and aphoristic, recalling the work of James Salter and John Cheever . . . The sentences go down easy, like a cold gin and tonic on a hot day. * Washington Post *
ISBN: 9781035055432
Dimensions: 242mm x 163mm x 31mm
Weight: 522g
320 pages