The bestselling novel by the author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted Stone Yard DevotionalA Book of the Year for The Times, Observer, Independent and Good Housekeeping''So great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice''MARIAN KEYES''A rare pleasure . . . I was shocked by how unusual it felt to spend 275 pages exclusively in the company of older women''SUNDAY TIMES''Riveting'' ELIZABETH DAY''Glorious . . . Charlotte Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout''GUARDIAN''A perfect, funny, insightful, novel about women, friendship, and ageing''NINA STIBBE''Wood ably conveys that older women didn''t used to be old, and that the experience of ageing is universally bewildering''OBSERVER''Triumphantly brings to life the honest, inner lives of women'' INDEPENDENT''A lovely, lively, intelligent, funny book''TESSA HADLEY''One sharp, funny, heartbreaking and gorgeously-written package. I loved it'' PAULA HAWKINS Sylvie, Jude, Wendy and Adele have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three.These women couldn''t be more different: Jude, a once-famous restaurateur with a spotless life and a long-standing affair with a married man; Wendy, an acclaimed feminist intellectual; Adele, a former star of the stage, now practically homeless. Struggling to recall exactly why they''ve remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for one last weekend at Sylvie''s old beach house. But fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.Praise for Charlotte Wood''s Stone Yard DevotionalShortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024 ''A beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life''SUNDAY TIMES''A transfixing novel''FINANCIAL TIMES''A book about what it means to be good: simply and with great humility, it asks the big questions, leaving the reader feeling kinder, more brave, enlarged''ANNE ENRIGHT''I have rarely been so absorbed by a novel . . . A powerful, generous book''GUARDIAN