Four Friends

"An engaging, unsettling book . . . An intensely humane work by a skillful writer of nonfiction narrative who knows how to make you forgive even as he damns."—Evan Thomas, The Washington Post

"[R]aises profound, important questions about the demands of manhood and the pressures, expectations, and obligations of privilege."—The National Book Review

“Four Friends is a tender, bracing meditation on ends and beginnings, large dreams and larger misfortunes, outsized promise and unfathomable loss. It is also an indelible portrait of a time and place, at once masterfully researched and deeply personal. Cohan writes with a reporter’s acuity and a memoirist’s subtlety; if he can’t explain the inexplicable, he does deliver us, gracefully and unsparingly, right to its doorstep.”—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Great Improvisation

“Deeply moving, Four Friends explores the idea of fate and shattered promise with intelligence and heart. It will haunt you and make you think.”—Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author of The Library Book

"I read this book captivated throughout, and often moved. In Cohan's elegant telling, it's more than four tragic endings. This is a contemplation of the twisting course of any life; how early hopes age; and how few of us become quite what was expected. An excellent book."—Tom Rachman, New York Times bestselling author of The Imperfectionists and The Italian Teacher

“Four Friends is a wrenching, beautifully woven story about fate, friendship and the shattered dreams of once-golden privileged men. I couldn’t put it down."—Jonathan Alter, New York Times bestselling author of The Center Holds

"Combining a friend's heartfelt sense of loss with the meticulous precision of a seasoned reporter, William Cohan has created a fascinating, often harrowing examination of what happens when promise succumbs to tragedy. A book that continues to resonate long after you've finished the last page."—Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award-winning author of In the Heart of the Sea and In the Hurricane's Eye

“William Cohan has written a beautiful and heartbreaking book about friendship and privilege, in a corner of American life that suddenly feels very far away.”—Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink

"This luminous book from the superb Bill Cohan is an elegant, poignant, arresting story, showing us two descendants of American Presidents and two of their classmates close up at a legendary boarding school and how their lives later ended with sudden accident and violence. In Cohan’s masterly rendering, some of the scenes in this volume recall the John Knowles classic A Separate Peace. This is an unforgettable book about friendship, privilege, character, ambition and the unpredictability of human life.”—Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling author of Presidents of War