Family Friends

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 have been looking forward to this cherished annual ritual - but this year 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 Maggie is worried about their withdrawn teenage son.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 grief over 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 conflicted fray steps Issy, Roland's beguiling, irrepressible daughter from his first marriage. And as the August heat beats down, and the children find new ways to entertain themselves, it starts to feel as if the fault lines in these relationships might widen; that it might be harder to hide secrets here, under the bright sun.

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.