Among Friends

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, author of <i> The Paper Palace <i/> 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 Among Friends is a powerful, elegant novel that offers unsparing and lyrically rendered insight into the lives of others -- Claire Lombardo, the <i>New York Times </i>bestselling author of <i>The Most Fun We Ever Had </i> Among Friends is smart and nuanced about the damage people are prepared to endure in the name of loyalty and comfort. The deep desire to only hear the story we want, or need, to be true. I was completely drawn in -- Claire Lynch,  author of <i>A Family Matter</i> Among Friends is 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, author of <i>The Sea</i> The violation that befalls these two families has the unalterable destiny a Greek dramatist like Sophocles might have imagined. Hal Ebbott has written an exquisitely crafted family tragedy. -- John Irving