Among Friends - by Hal Ebbott

Book Synopsis

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND THE ECONOMIST

NAMED A FAVORITE FICTION READ OF THE YEAR BY NPR

"Stylish and assured....Ebbott's prose is honed and aphoristic, recalling the work of James Salter and John Cheever...The sentences go down easy...but there is substance beneath the gleaming surfaces." --Washington Post

"Acutely perceptive and beautifully written...A living thing...A huge achievement." --The Financial Times

"Finely calibrated...[A]s discerning as it is pitiless." --The New Yorker

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for Among Friends

"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. The point of view glides from one character to another, backward and forward in time, but there is substance beneath the gleaming surfaces." --Washington Post

"[A] finely calibrated début...The book is as discerning as it is pitiless about the transactional nature of human connection." --The New Yorker

"Trust us." -Town and Country

"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

"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

"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 hard diamond of a novel, Among Friends is cut through with brilliant prose and unsparing insights into the parts of ourselves that usually go unsaid. Ebbott's sentences are sharp enough to wound, yet alive with tenderness. It's rare to read a debut this exacting and vital; I have not stopped thinking of it since." --Coco Mellors, New York Times best-selling author of Blue Sisters

"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

"Among Friends is a powerful, elegant novel that offers unsparing and lyrically rendered insight into the lives of others." --Claire Lombardo

About the Author

Hal Ebbott is a writer living in New York. Among Friends is his first novel.