"Pushing boundaries as it explores the meaning of long term friendships and family, this deeply thought-provoking novel has been chosen as a LoveReading Star Book."
Emotionally astute and beautifully crafted, Among Friends delivers an unforgettable reading experience. In one weekend a thirty year old friendship is smashed to pieces. Debut author Hal Ebbott writes with a masterly pen. He slices open fear and uncertainty and grief, creating questions and provoking thoughts and feelings. Concentrating on six characters, there is an incredible intimacy on offer as trust is broken resulting in fractured relationships. The story caused a physical ache to take up residence within me. Layers upon layers are carefully constructed before being knocked down. I flinched and felt uncertainty as I was caught up with the raw feelings that were exposed. Despite the pain, I just couldn’t stop reading. I really wasn’t sure where the story was going to take me, and I lived on the edge of cliff throughout. I just had to include this as a Liz Pick of the Month and LoveReading Star Book. Devastatingly clever and powerful, Among Friends is highly recommended by the LoveReading team.
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.
'Every sentence keeps you hanging in the air, waiting for the next punch to the gut' - Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace
'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
Author
About Hal Ebbott
Hal Ebbott is a writer living in New York. Among Friends is his first novel.
