Compulsive Contemporaries to read now: Thirst Trap by Grainne O'Hare, Among Friends by Hal Ebbott, Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
Thirst Trap by Grainne O'Hare (Picador £16.99, 288pp)
Flatmates and Irish party girls Roise, Harley and Maggie are turning 30. Having spent their twenties drinking their way around the bars of Belfast and engaging in a string of chaotic love affairs, they are now grieving Lydia, the fourth member of their gang who died in a car accident a year ago.
The nights get wilder as they try to block out their grief rather than process it and the days become darker as a result.
The main reason the friends find it almost impossible to move on is because they had a hideous fight with Lydia just before her death and can't stop ruminating over the bad memories.
It's compulsively readable and brilliant on friendship and grief. I raced through it.
Among Friends by Hal Ebbott (Picador £16.99, 320pp)
Emerson and Amos have been best friends since meeting on the first day of college 30 years ago.
Although from very different backgrounds, the relationship between the men has only deepened as more time passes.
Their wives are friends too and their daughters have grown up together – they are so close that people envy their friendship. Both men live in New York, are wealthy and successful and relish their regular meet-ups.
During one of these weekends away with their families, a shocking act is committed that threatens to destroy everything they have built.
It turns out that what looks solid and unshakeable on the outside is fragile and changeable on the inside, not so impervious to tension and toxicity as imagined. Childhood trauma, competitiveness and shifting power dynamics have been long buried but are not dead.
It's beautifully written and packs a huge emotional punch. I couldn't put it down and kept thinking about it long after I finished. Brilliant.
Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild (John Murray £16.99, 336pp)
Honor is so desperate for a second child that she finds it difficult to focus on the gorgeous three-year-old she already has, Chloe. Honor's successful husband Tom is also feeling neglected.
While their small family is spending Christmas at the Ritz in Paris, Honor is obsessed with finding out whether their surrogate is pregnant or not. After a row with Tom, Honor takes Chloe down for breakfast on their own. When the unthinkable happens, Tom is left agonising over how things might have been.
A few years later, Tom's life has changed in every way. He finally feels like he might be able to move on when he uncovers a secret that he can't leave alone, and everything changes again. It's full of wisdom and stuffed with unpredictable twists and turns that kept me engrossed to the end.
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