A long-married couple are spending an unaccustomed week apart. The wife has flown to East Africa to grieve the death of her sister with her brother-in-law, who had suffered worse heartbreak years earlier.

The husband, a familiar Yehoshua character, stays behind in Israel for his busy lift engineering consultancy, and his large demanding family.

The chapters alternate between husband and wife, creating a complex web of family relations, memories and discoveries, with death looming large over all.

Friendly Fire explores themes touched upon in A.B. Yehoshua's earlier novels, with the author's customary stylistic brilliance, imagination and humour.