Three friends, all exhausted young mothers living in Paris, escape to Tunisia for a New Year's getaway. By the hotel pool, they savour a rare moment of freedom, reliving past mistakes (and making new ones) while dreaming of adventure. Three years later, they reunite for another holiday, this time at a remote, disused lighthouse off the coast of Brittany. But the easy camaraderie of their earlier trip has faded. Tensions simmer, and long-held dynamics begin to shift - especially when it's revealed that one of them is writing a film inspired by their friendship. Full of humour and insight, Nolwenn Le Blevennec's latest novel explores growing up, growing apart and the rich, if painful, bonds of female friendship.

Nolwenn Le Blevennec is a journalist and writer. She is editor-in- chief at L'Obs, and lives in Paris. Friends and Lovers is her second novel; her first, As The Eagle Flies, was published by Peirene in 2023. Delfi and was a long-time editor at Berlin-based periodical Die Tageszeitung. Her 2017 debut novel, Ellbogen (Elbow), received numerous literary prizes in Germany, and she co-edited the 2019 essay collection Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare, which became an overnight sensation in German-speaking Europe and is now available in English translation. Dschinns (Djinns), her second novel, was a Spiegel bestseller and shortlisted for the German Book Prize. It has been adapted for multiple theatre performances and will soon be adapted for cinema. Aydemir lives and works in Berlin.