The Best of Friends

Gina and Laurence have been the best of friends since childhood—but they’ve never been in love. For marriage, they chose others: Fergus, who gave Gina a lovely daughter and a life of elegance and wealth; and Hilary, who helped Laurence build a cozy, successful hotel, and who counts Gina as one of her dearest friends as well. But when one of these marriages ends, the result is a shift that sends tremors through three generations and two families—as friends become lovers, lovers become enemies, enemies become allies…and another marriage hangs in the balance. Joanna Trollope is the sort of author who “makes her readers want to drop everything in order to keep on reading” (Publishers Weekly)—and The Best of Friends proves her consummate skill once again.“Thoughtful, seamless.” —Washington Post Book World

“Trollope tenderly explores the clash between extramarital passion and the bonds of family love…delicious wryness and large doses of empathy.” —Good Housekeeping

“It is both a delectably sweet and intensely satisfying undertaking to be swept right along with these carefully crafted characters.” —Booklist

“Can a man and woman be friends—best friends? That age-old (but very contemporary) question is the point on which Joanna Trollope’s new novel turns…Trollope’s prose is skillful, and it’s impossible not to be swept along by her story.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Joanna Trollope has been writing for more than 30 years. Her enormously successful contemporary works of fiction, several of which have been televised, include Other People's Children, Marrying the Mistress, Girl from the South, Brother & Sister, Second Honeymoon, and Friday Nights. She was awarded the OBE in 1996 for services to literature.