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Chloë Ashby's 'excruciatingly suspenseful' new novel goes to Fig Tree
Ella Harold, editor at Fig Tree, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Family Friends, the third novel by writer and journalist Chloë Ashby, from Emma Finn at C&W. Fig Tree will publish the novel as a lead hardback in summer 2026.
“Family Friends is a deeply atmospheric, sophisticated and compelling novel, in which decades of suppressed secrets and knotty feelings come to a head over the course of one summer holiday,” Fig Tree said. “It is a novel about what happens when the ties of family and friendship are pushed to breaking point; about how relationships change – and don’t change – over time, and how we navigate the challenges that the unpredictable seasons of life throw at us.”
The synopsis reads: “For as long as they can remember, Maggie and Will have spent two weeks of every summer in France with their close friends, Lydia and Roland. This yearly ritual is something both families look forward to – but this year things are different.
“Will has been hiding something from his wife, and is struggling to keep his deceit from seeping into every foundational crack in their marriage. Maggie is worried about their withdrawn teenage son. Roland is grappling with how to grieve the death of his first wife. Lydia is trying to ignore decades-past chemistry with an old friend while coming to terms with playing second fiddle to a ghost.
“As the summer heat beats down on their holiday home, and their children behave in unexpected ways, the two couples find that the tensions they have been trying their best to temper begin to bubble dangerously over.”
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Harold says: “Chloë Ashby is an extraordinarily skilful storyteller. I have admired her existing novels from afar and Family Friends marks a significant maturation in her writing. It’s a novel of real human drama, built out of conflicting loyalties and nuanced emotions, in which lyrical writing and emotional acuity opens out into a kaleidoscopic view of two couples – two families – in crisis.
“It’s beautifully observed and it builds to excruciating suspense: it’s exactly the kind of novel I love to read, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be welcoming Chloë to Fig Tree.”
Ashby said: “I set myself a challenge with this novel, and it was a challenge, but it was also so much fun. Think close friendships, inevitably complicated marriages, parents trying their best, children left to their own devices, a houseful of loyalties and betrayals, a stiflingly hot summer holiday. I’m beyond happy to be working with Ella, whose passion and vision for the book hooked me right away, and what a joy to be joining the wonderful Fig Tree list.”
Ashby is an award-winning arts critic and the author of Wet Paint and Second Self (Trapeze). A graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art, she writes and reviews for publications including the Times, the Guardian, FT Life&Arts and the TLS. As well as her two previous novels, she is the author of two non-fiction books on art history.
