Family Friends by Chloë Ashby: Happy holidays

I thoroughly enjoyed Chloë Ashby’s debut, Wet Paint, back into 2022 which was why I put up my hand for Family Friends, although the setup of two families who’ve been getting together once a year in a run-down chateau for two decades piqued my interest. Family Friends spans two weeks in a French heatwave after a difficult year for some, and secrets kept by others, setting us up nicely for some simmering tensions.

Lydia hugs her and welcomes her to middle age as if it’s a relaxing island experience.

Lydia, Will and Maggie met at university in Edinburgh where they were taught by Roland. Will and Maggie’s ten-year-old, Alice, is desperate to be reunited with Bea, Lydia and Roland’s daughter with whom she’s inseparable every summer. Maggie is trying to get to grips with her new promotion to deputy head at her son’s school, worrying about fifteen-year-old Sammy who seems withdrawn and unhappy. They arrive to the news that Roland’s first wife has died and that Issy, his nineteen-year-old daughter, has joined them for the holiday. To Maggie, her best friend seems fraught after months of Roland nursing Mary. Roland has retreated to his study, ostensibly to continue with his current book but grappling with writing Mary’s eulogy together with his guilt at leaving Issy alone with her unstable mother when he moved in with Lydia. Add to this a few secrets yet to be divulged, plus the backdrop of the chateau’s imminent sale, perplexing given Lydia’s father’s wealth, and some history to be dealt with and you have the ingredients for a tumultuous two weeks.

The house is big enough to sleep sixteen, yet Lydia feels like the spider Bea and Alice trapped beneath an upturned water glass this morning.

Ashby’s novel shifts from character to character, unfolding their backstories through flashbacks so that we learn how the two families have become so intermeshed. Revelations are made, secrets laid bare and relationships strained, none of it helped by the sweltering heat which Roland shuts out every morning. Trips to the market are lovingly described and characters pleasingly developed as tensions build towards the last meal the families will share in this house which has been in Lydia’s family for many years. I enjoyed this story of early midlife which would make a great holiday read, although not, perhaps, if you’re planning one with friends, but found it a little disappointing after the freshness of Wet Paint.

Fig Tree: London 9780241784235 336 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)