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What begins as celebration gives way to betrayal, shattering the trust between two families.
It's an autumn weekend at a comfortable New York country house where two deeply intertwined families have gathered to mark the host's fifty-second birthday.
Together, the group forms an enviable portrait of middle age. The wives and husbands have been friends for over thirty years, their teenage daughters have grown up together, and the dinners, games, and rituals forming their days all reflect the rich bonds between them.
This weekend, however, something is different. An unforeseen curdling of envy and resentment will erupt in an unspeakable act, the aftermath of which exposes treacherous fault lines upon which they have long dwelt.
Written with hypnotic elegance and molten precision, and announcing the arrival of a major literary talent, Hal Ebbott's Among Friends examines betrayal within the sanctuary of a defining relationship, as well as themes of class, marriage, friendship, power, and the things we tell ourselves to preserve our finely made worlds.
"Subtle, keenly intelligent, psychologically deft…This is the kind of book Tom Wolfe used to write, and debut novelist Ebbott definitely has the talent and brio to carry it off. 'Unflinching' is a label often applied to such works, but that word's not nearly strong enough for what happens here." —Kirkus Reviews
"Elegant…[with] refined prose that feels like a throwback to mid-20th-century psychological realism… Ebbott conjures up a world where mental machinations trump morality. It's an alluring accomplishment." —Publishers Weekly
This information about Among Friends was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Hal Ebbott is a writer living in New York. Among Friends is his first novel.
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