Among Friends

Who would you choose to believe? Amos and Emerson have been friends for thirty years. Despite coming from vastly different backgrounds, the two men now form an enviable portrait of middle age: their wives are friends, 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. Now, it is Emerson’s birthday, and Amos and his family are heading upstate to celebrate in Emerson’s beautiful home. Over the course of the weekend, rivalries emerge and tensions escalate, until a final shocking act of violence threatens to tear the two families’ finely made world apart. In its wake, each of them must choose: between whom and what they love most.

Who would you choose to believe? Amos and Emerson have been friends for thirty years. Despite coming from vastly different backgrounds, the two men now form an enviable portrait of middle age: their wives are friends, 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. Now, it is Emerson’s birthday, and Amos and his family are heading upstate to celebrate in Emerson’s beautiful home. Over the course of the weekend, rivalries emerge and tensions escalate, until a final shocking act of violence threatens to tear the two families’ finely made world apart. In its wake, each of them must choose: between whom and what they love most.

What begins as celebration gives way to betrayal, shattering the trust between two families "Exquisitely crafted." --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 "Wonderful, sly and subtle...Every sentence keeps you hanging in the air, waiting for the next punch to the gut. Wow."--Miranda Cowley Heller "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 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.

What begins as celebration gives way to betrayal, shattering the trust between two families "Exquisitely crafted." --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 "Wonderful, sly and subtle...Every sentence keeps you hanging in the air, waiting for the next punch to the gut. Wow."--Miranda Cowley Heller "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 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.