Family Friends

A Novel

Chloe Ashby

A "sultry and evocative" novel about the secrets and entanglements between a group of friends holidaying in the south of France.

Since they first met at university twenty years ago, Maggie and Will have spent the last two weeks of every summer in France with their close friends, Lydia and Roland. Both families always look forward to this annual ritual—but this summer things are different.

Will has been hiding something from his wife, and is struggling to keep his deceit from seeping into the cracks in their marriage. Maggie is worried about their withdrawn teenage son. Roland is grappling with how to grieve the death of his first wife. Lydia is trying to ignore past chemistry with an old friend while learning to play second fiddle to a ghost.

Into this already conflicted fray steps Issy, Roland’s beguiling, irrepressible daughter from his first marriage. And as the August heat beats down, and the children behave in unexpected ways, the two couples find that tensions they have been trying their best to temper have begun to bubble over…

Family Friends is a deeply atmospheric, sophisticated and compelling novel about what happens when the ties of love and loyalty are stretched to the breaking point, how relationships change (and don’t change) over time, and how we navigate the challenges thrown at us in every season of life.

Chloë Ashby is an author and award-winning arts critic. She writes and reviews for publications including the Times, the Guardian, Harper’s Bazaar, and the TLS. As well as her two previous novels, she is the author of two non-fiction books on art history.

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Endorsements & Reviews

"Sultry and very evocative. Ashby is discerning when writing children and teenagers, and there's a shrewdness to how the energy within those lively, underage time-bombs translates deftly to the tortured, uncertain adults around them. Family Friends contains the sort of characters you'd die to have as neighbours: chaotic, and always on the verge of their next mistake—perfect, in other words, to gossip with friends over." Jo Hamya, author of The Hypocrite

"A beautifully poised and riveting novel about the intricacies and entanglements of a group of friends holidaying in the south of France. I was gripped from the start."
Claire Powell, author of At The Table

"Family Friends yanked me out of a reading slump. Ashby has such a precise eye for the detail that exactly fits the scene. Filmic and absorbing, I enjoyed it very much." Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of The Sleep Watcher

"All the hallmarks of a perfect literary holiday read: an idyllic setting, eclectic cast of characters, and multiple unresolved tensions that keep unfurling. Such is Ashby’s skill that you won’t want to put it down (other than to reapply your suncream)." Roxy Dunn, author of Wants and Needs

"With delicacy, sensitivity and atmospheric depth, Ashby writes the way I imagine an artist paints, with attention to the tiniest of details; it’s in this attention and astute observation that she so deftly captures what it means to love and to betray." Huma Qureshi, author of Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love

"I read Family Friends in winter and was transported to a warm, languid summer in a French country house where two families gather yearly. In Chloë Ashby's expert hands, a hot summer is the perfect setting for mistakes to be made and for tensions to simmer until they reach a boiling point." Rukky Brume, author of It Comes in Waves

"Delicious! So good on the way that time ties knots in relationships that trip us up further down the line. Chloë is so patient with her characters, even when they’re making terrible mistakes, whilst also keeping us hooked on her tangled plot." Lizzy Stewart, author of Alison

"With Family Friends, Ashby has created a piercing portrait of marriage, friendship and parenthood. It is a propulsive story with intrigue, secrecy and drama." Jenny Mustard, author of What a Time to Be Alive 

"An intelligent, evocative, elegant novel simmering with tension and drama. Family Friends is a forensic examination of friendship and desire, and the perils of mixing the two." Lisa Owens, author of Natural Disaster