Family Friends: The Happy Place Book Club pick, an escapist novel of marriage, friendship and fidelity

The literary must-read of the summer: a deeply atmospheric novel about friendship, marriage, and long-suppressed secrets. Perfect for readers of Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace, A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, and Tessa Hadley.

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Maggie is worried about their withdrawn teenage son.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.

And then, into this conflicted fray steps Issy, Roland’s beguiling, irrepressible daughter from his first marriage.

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.

Deeply atmospheric, sophisticated and compelling, Family Friends is about what happens when the ties of love and loyalty are stretched to 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.

'Riveting ... I was gripped from the start' Claire Powell, author of All In

'A perfect literary holiday read ... You won’t want to put it down' Roxy Dunn, author of Wants and Needs

© Chloë Ashby 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026