Among Friends by Hal Ebbott

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Among Friends by Hal Ebbott

Literary fiction

Among Friends

Debut

by Hal Ebbott

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Quick take

A subtle, tense, and illuminating novel about the fallout of a shocking act in a tight-knit group of family friends.

Highbrow

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Emotional

    Emotional

  • Illustrated icon, Heavy_Read

    Heavy read

  • Illustrated icon, Multiple_Viewpoints

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

Synopsis

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 drinks, dinners, rituals, and games that form their days all reflect the rich bonds between them.

This weekend, however, something is different. An unforeseen curdling of envy and resentment will erupt into an unspeakable act, the ramifications of which are enormous. Accusations, denials, and shattered illusions follow, driving wedges between friends, spouses, children and parents, and exposing the treacherous fault lines on which these families have dwelt.

Content warning

This book contains scenes depicting sexual assault.

Read a sample

Get an early look from the first pages of Among Friends.

Among Friends

In the distance, boys sweep across sharp, neatly cut grass. The ball predicts their turns; sweat spreads like moss on their shirts. Eventually they will stop and come up the hill, their smiles brilliant, exhausted. One pushes another. The group receives him, this act of love.

It’s he Amos studies, the boy pushed, whose brown eyes accept the campus like something owned, whose legs toss his feet forward in loping, comfortable steps. He hasn’t spoken much, but his silence doesn’t diminish him. His presence seems, to the rest, so inevitable it needn’t be noted.

As they ate, bent like soldiers over their trays, someone had thrown him an apple. Ford, they called out. The boy plucked it from the air, took a clean, violent bite, and, with a pat, set it down. Others laughed. The meat glistened like bone.

On the field he’d moved with the lazy grace of a prodigy, natural and untended. Amos was better, and at the time had been glad. But walking beside him now, he feels ashamed of his effort. The summer hours spent sweating grow needful and unsightly.

Around them, the college lies stilled by August sun. Empty paths vein its lawns. Only athletes have returned; they move in small clusters, their voices distant and soft.

“This is me,” the boy says.

The rest nod and walk on. Then Amos remembers it’s his dorm as well. He turns, jogging back.

“You live here?” the boy asks.

“Aye.” Amos squints like an old man surveying his farm.

“Ever since this morning.”

The boy laughs gently. He offers a warm hand, tanned as a glove.

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Why I love it

From the first page of Among Friends, I was drawn into Hal Ebbott’s percipient and refined prose. The intimate view of masculine friendship, social facades, and group dynamics had me so captivated that when the stakes were suddenly and unexpectedly raised, I didn’t know what had hit me.

Emerson and Amos have been best friends since college, supporting each other through life’s seasons. Now in their 50s, both married fathers of teenage daughters, they spend a holiday weekend at a country house with their families. What begins as an innocent gathering becomes the catalyst of the group’s unraveling. One shocking act will shake the foundations of their comfortable, picture-perfect lives, and reveal long-buried jealousies, insecurities, and distrust.

Ebbott deftly and precisely peels back the layers and complexities hidden beneath the surface of the characters’ lives. As we see the dismantling of relationships that have been strong but unexamined for decades, we begin to understand the carefully curated roles being played in the group’s established dynamic. Ultimately, this resolute, unblinking novel raises thought-provoking questions about the secrets we keep, the pretenses we rely on, and the unsettling idea that we may not truly know those closest to us.

Member ratings (153)

July 2025
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Among Friends
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July 2025
View all
Finding Grace
How Freaking Romantic
Among Friends
You Belong Here
These Summer Storms
Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar