The Tenko Club
by Elizabeth Noble
Coronet $112
Four women with little in common but an eagerness to live life to the fullest meet at university in the 1980s. Over romantic crises, long, gossipy nights and too many bottles of wine, they form the Tenko Club. The name comes from a television drama about a group of English women who were held in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Singapore. Supposedly, you can look at a woman - or talk to her or listen to her - for five minutes and you know how she'd behave in that situation. One woman would sleep with the guards to get food, then not share it. Another would be the camp mother who'd sort out the fights and look after the weak ones. Another would be vulnerable and always need protection. The four friends swear they'll always be there for each other. Twenty years later, that promise is put to the test.