Chloë Ashby

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

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

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

Sultry and very evocative ... 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

With Family Friends Ashby has created a piercing portrait of marriage, friendship and parenthood. It is a propulsive story with intrigue, secrecy and drama – I had a wonderful time reading it

Jenny Mustard, author of What a Time to Be Alive

An involving and psychologically acute portrait of marriage, friendship and loyalty tested to the limit. A sophisticated summer page-turner for Tessa Hadley fans

Poised and elegant. Skewers the intimacies and dynamics of friendship, desire, trust and betrayal on a summer holiday in the sultry French heat

My kind of summer read ... If you love elegant writing, observations on old and new love, friendship and grief, you will love Family Friends. Chloë has a beautiful way of observing detail to bring you in really close to the drama

Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls

More complicated family entanglements, secrets and lies, set against the backdrop of a sultry summer holiday in the South of France. Chloë writes in a painterly manner - with precision and subtlety

Book(ish), Natasha Poliszczuk: Good Books for 2026

[Family Friends] has everything I like in a literary summer read: stunning location, complicated friendships and messy, long marriages under the microscope. Bliss!

Family Friends is a novel of simmering tensions and sultry summer nights. Ashby writes so astutely about female friendship, marriage, motherhood and adolescence, and has created a quietly compelling novel dissecting the unspoken tensions that exist between loved ones

A gorgeous, sun-soaked novel set over one eventful holiday in the south of France, shared between old university friends with a host of secrets ready to break the surface. This is quintessential summer reading, with decadent, idyllic settings that bring out the characters’ true colours, heightened with a healthy dose of unreliable narration and tense conversations over dinner

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)

Atmospheric and seriously stylish, Family Friends is the perfect sultry summer read that will transport you to the simmering heat of the South of France. With these intriguing characters, Ashby continues to cement herself as a deft observer of the knots and tangles of human relationships

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

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

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

Praise for Family Friends

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

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

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 ...

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

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

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 ...

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

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

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 ...

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