Your Friend and Mine

A warm, witty and wise novel about second chances, friendship and romance for readers of Marian Keyes and Liane Moriarty.

‘Dettmann at her hilarious and heartwarming best.’ Tim Minchin

When Margot receives an email from her best friend, Tess, it comes as a shock. Tess has been dead for over twenty years.

At once she is catapulted back to 2000, meeting the cool, confident English backpacker visiting Sydney, where their intense friendship led to plans to travel back to Europe together. But then Margot fell in love with Johnny, they opened a restaurant together and had a baby. Margot never made it to London, and Tess tragically died from ovarian cancer. The guilt Margot felt about letting her friend down has never completely subsided.

Now Tess is providing Margot with the means to fly to London and have the trip they never got to do together. But there are stipulations to Tess’s beyond-the-grave generosity – Margot must scatter her ashes and carry out one or two ‘tasks’ in the company of Leo, Tess’s childhood friend.

Margot can’t help but compare the dreams and aspirations of the girl who partied with Tess to the bored, exhausted woman she has become. How could Tess have predicted that Margot would need a second chance to get on that plane?

With Jessica Dettmann’s trademark wisdom, warmth and wit, Your Friend and Mine asks whether choosing the path not taken in the past can deliver the answers you need for the future.

‘Funny, tender and adventurous, this story had me alternating between laughter and tears throughout. Your Friend and Mine is a touching homage to love – between lovers and friends – and a beautiful exploration of the nuances of grief, all wrapped up in Jess’ signature humour. I’m such a huge fan of Jess’ books and this was my favourite of them all. I absolutely adored it.’ – Ali Lowe, author of The Private Island

‘Thoughtful, funny, touching, smart. Your Friend And Mine sparkles with Jess Dettmann’s trademark wit, and charms with its sharp insights into friendship, long-term love and detoured dreams. An absolute pleasure.’ – Holly Wainwright, author of He Would Never