The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

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.

REVIEWS

"The Weekend by Charlotte Wood is acerbic brilliance... It is so great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice... Wood is an agonisingly gifted writer, so great at capturing micro-emotions, the complexity of friendship, love, mother-child tension, all done with breezy readability. At time it's funny, thought-provoking, very moving. I care so much about the characters. I am now going to read all her other books! "― Marian Keyes

"A rare pleasure... Warm and wise... This unsentimental gaze is typical of Wood's quietly radical tragicomedy. I was shocked by how unusual it felt to spend 275 pages exclusively in the company of older women... The Weekend is a shortish novel that slips down easily... With ostensibly light touch, Wood commands the long histories of these three very different women... A surefooted novel that packs 50 years into one weekend." - Claire Lowden ― The Sunday Times

"It's hard to imagine a more perfect study of female friendship than this unflinching look at the intricate mesh of fondnesses, micro-tensions and resentments that bind the women but may, eventually, tear them apart. Wood is unforgiving in her portrayal of the women yet they are so well drawn, so alive on the page, it is impossible not to feel a kinship and intimacy with each of them... The denouement is so magnificent, so heart-rending, that there is no doubt Wood is a writer of an exceptional calibre.Set in Australia over the course of a hot, long weekend, this is a great big gulp of a novel that cries out to be read in a single sitting." - Rosie Hopegood ― Daily Express

PRODUCT DETAILS
Paperback
Publisher: W&N
ISBN: 978-1474612999
Pages: 288