In The Bottoms, tiny Cotswold villages on the English countryside, filthy rich Tata Hawkins is in a tizzy when her husband runs off with a bikini designer; her glamorous new neighbor, an American divorcée, refuses her overtures at friendship; and her two best friends are distracted by their own problems.

Friends Lila and Elena are now in their twenties. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila. Meanwhile, Elena continues her journey of self-discovery. The two young women share a complex and evolving bond that brings them close at times, and drives them apart at others. Each vacillates between hurtful disregard and profound love for the other. With this complicated and meticulously portrayed friendship at the center of their emotional lives, the two...