The Friendship Test

One late wine — and gossip-fueled night, four friends on a lark create a fateful test of friendship — one that challenges the very principles and boundaries of their alliance. To pass it means to never, at any cost, betray one another. Twenty years later, they must face that ultimate test.

We meet them at the dawn of their camaraderie in the 1980s and already each woman is distinguished from the other: Tamsin, the compassionate mother hen; Reagan, the brazen and clever overachiever; Sarah, the seemingly perfect beauty; and Freddie, who despite being far from her U.S. home, finds strength in her friends. We forward to today, and as promised they are still firm friends...that is until a crisis occurs and the principles that define their friendship test are challenged. Exquisitely rendered by Elizabeth Noble, The Friendship Test is a powerful testament to the depth and capacity of female relationships.

"Noble (The Reading Group) spins another compulsively readable yarn, guided by the cozily familiar conceit of lifelong friendship taking root among vastly different gals. This fab four, deftly rendered with a few pen strokes as distinct personalities — brassy American Freddie; doting, maternal Tasmin; beautiful, sensitive Sarah; and scholarly, serious Reagan — meet in Oxford in the '80s and nurse each other through heartache and calamity with soul-baring dish sessions and fervent avowals of friendship, calling themselves the Tenko Club. The divergent threads of their adult lives are destined to knot again in 2004, after Freddie suffers a double blow with her husband's affair and her estranged father's death. Her oldest friends rally to her cause, each in her own way — from caustic honesty to fierce protectiveness — though bouts of tragedy and betrayal threaten to unravel their bonds. The action spans England and America, with a sprawling, twisty plot that will appeal to readers in both places. Noble's tender wit depicts the love among friends as steadfast and magical as any romance. Breezy and heartwarming, the novel's beach-book disposition also makes for a cozy winter read." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Noble does a fine job with all of these threads and the narration moves seamlessly from one character's perspective to another....[A] smooth and pleasant read. If only life were so well-organized." Chicago Sun-Times

"[T]he dialogue rings true, and the human drama will appeal to readers of high-end chick lit." Booklist

"Noble bestows enough imperfections in her characters and twists in the plot to take the story beyond typical romance fare." School Library Journal

From the author of the national bestseller,

Elizabeth Noble studied at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, before working in British publishing for several years. Her first novel, The Reading Group, was a bestseller in the United States and the United Kingdom. She divides her time between Surrey, England, and New York with her husband and two daughters.