City of Friends - Tapa dura

This is a delightfully grown-up tale, deftly balancing escapist details with relatable office and home challenges, including ageing parents, rebellious teens and boardroom ethics. Poised and insightful, it's a paean to the joys of leaning in - especially when the going gets tough. * Mail on Sunday * Explores the multiple frustrations, pressures and hidden agonies of the lives of modern women * Metro * It's fiendishly well plotted and, with its glittering London settings, full of urban glamour * Daily Mail * Ventures into tough new territories of female experience. * Sunday Times * Joanna Trollope's novels address the issues and emotional journeys that face women today. In this, her 20th novel, she turns a sharp and reflective eye upon four friends in their workplaces . . . As the novel progresses, each woman is forced to question herself and to ask what really matters. How important is work? How much more do women have to put up with the workplace than men? What price transparency, especially among friends? The author addresses all the question with her customary insight and wisdom, depicting the characters with warmth and psychological veracity, drawing the reader deep into their lives. * S Magazine, Sunday Express *

City of Friends is the twentieth novel from the highly acclaimed number one bestselling author, Joanna Trollope. She glanced at her phone again. There were appeals from the girls, from her colleagues, a text from Steve reading with uncharacteristic imperiousness, 'Call me.' She couldn't. She couldn't call anyone . . . She leaned forward, gripping the edge of the bench, and stared at the ground. God, she thought, am I losing my mind? Is this what happens when you lose your job? The day Stacey Grant loses her job feels like the last day of her life. Or at least, the only life she'd ever known. For who was she if not a City high-flyer, Senior Partner at one of the top private equity firms in London? As Stacey starts to reconcile her old life with the new - one without professional achievements or meetings, but instead, long days at home with her dog and ailing mother, waiting for her successful husband to come home - she at least has The Girls to fall back on. Beth, Melissa and Gaby. The girls, now women, had been best friends from the early days of university right through their working lives, and for all the happiness and heartbreaks in between. But these career women all have personal problems of their own, and when Stacey's redundancy forces a betrayal to emerge that was supposed to remain secret, their long cherished friendships will be pushed to their limits . . .