Contemporary Fiction Books

Book SynopsisAnne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has written two collections of stories, published together as Yesterday's Weather, one book of non-fiction, Making Babies, and seven novels, including The Gathering, which won the 2007 Man Booker Prize, The Forgotten Waltz, which was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and The Green Road, which was the Bord Gáis Energy Novel of the Year and won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. In 2015 she was appointed as the first Laureate for Irish Fiction, and in 2018 she received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature. She is also the recipient of the 2022 Irish Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2024 Writers' Prize for Fiction.Trade ReviewEnright deals beautifully with the modern world ... blood, guts, and heart-stopping beauty * Independent *At the top of her form, she is remarkable -- Jane Shilling * The Times *Shockingly beautiful and painfully funny * Observer *The quality of the writing should help to explain Enright's having won the 2007 Man Booker Prize ... single lines and paragraphs are so well crafted, with such salty, pleasantly brutal sensibility, that these stories function like beguiling advertisements for Enright's novels. After sampling Taking Pictures, those who, like me, have not yet read The Gathering will likely move her Man Booker winner nearer to the top of the pile beside the bed -- Lionel Shriver * Daily Telegraph *She's a sphinx, an alchemist, a literary witch who sticks a spell on you. Angela Carter and Ali Smith can do this too.... buy it, read it, it isn't realism, it's music * Scotsman *

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Book SynopsisAn unnamed author waits in a bar in Tel Aviv on a stifling hot night. He is there to give a reading of his work but as he sits, bored, he begins to conjure up the life stories of the people he meets. Later, when the reading is done he asks a woman for a drink. She declines and the author walks away, only to climb the steps to her flat, later that night. Or does he? In Amos Oz''s beguiling, intriguing story the reader never really knows where reality ends and invention begins...Trade ReviewA master class in interlocking character sketches, and a fable on the themes of sex, death and writing pitched somewhere between the fictional universes of JM Coetzee and Milan Kundera * Guardian *Delightful...a meditation, on the art of writing, the relationship between literature and life, between life and death...the work of a master. A book you are likely to return to * Scotsman *Oz writes with fluency and a sly humour * Daily Mail *A playful and meditative examination of old age, literary posterity and the juxtaposition between literature and real life * Metro *Beautifully balanced between humour and sorrow * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisTRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERYFar from the gentle slopes of the Hundred Acre Wood lies The Red House, the setting for A.A Milne's only detective story, where secret passages, uninvited guests, a sinister valet and a puzzling murder lay the foundations for a classic crime caper.Trade ReviewI love his writingHe has the pacing equivalent of perfect pitch * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisHe is a brilliant maths professor with a peculiar problem - ever since a traumatic head injury seventeen years ago, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.Trade ReviewHighly original. Infinitely charming. And ever so touching. * Paul Auster *A perfectly sustained novel (a tribute to Stephen Snyder's smooth translation); like a note prolonged...a pause enabling us to peer intently into the lives of its characters...has all the charm and restraint of any by Ishiguro and the whimsy of Murakami * Los Angeles Times *Beautiful...the extraordinary Yoko Ogawa casts her spell. Never before has the beauty of maths been so lovingly explored...a tender, gentle book...Ogawa is an original and establishes a world in a paragraph..This is a tale which will leave the reader gasping...Hopefully more of her exciting, thoughtful fiction is heading our way. * Irish Times *Its unnamed characters suggest archetype or myth; its rapturous concentration on the details of weather and cooking provide a satisfyingly textured foundation * Guardian *Alive with mysteries both mathematical and personal, this novel has the pared-down elegance of an equation * Oprah magazine *

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Book SynopsisIn a suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, four teenage girls drift through a hot smoggy August and tedious summer school classes. There''s dependable Toshi; brainy Terauchi; Yuzan, grief-stricken and confused; and Kirarin, whose late nights and reckless behaviour remain a secret from those around her. Then Toshi''s next-door neighbour is found brutally murdered and the girls suspect Worm, the neighbour''s son and a high school misfit. But when he disappears (taking Toshi''s bike and cell phone with him) the four girls become irresistibly drawn into a treacherous vortex of brutality and seduction which rises from within themselves as well as the world around them.Trade ReviewKirino uses her considerable narrative gifts to evoke the tedium, pressure and angst her teenage characters suffer * Publishers Weekly *Kirino creates a fictional universe in which the normal rules of engagement no longer apply...she chronicles the toxic fall out of an educational system that fosters conformity above individualism -- Emma Hagestadt * Independent *Japanese crime queen ... a tense, worried book of actions and consequences * Guardian *She may be the best crime writer to emerge from Japan in years * Independent on Sunday *The translation is smooth and invisible... Compelling * www.eurocrime.co.uk *

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Book SynopsisNow a major motion picture starring Sarah Gadon, Logan Lerman and Ben Rosenfield, and adapted for the screen by James SchamusDuring the second year of the Korean War in 1951, studious, law-abiding Marcus Messner is beginning his sophomore year on the conservative campus of Ohio''s Winesburg College. Marcus has fled from his hometown of Newark, New jersey, trying to escape his father''s oppressive love - a love that is also a mad fear of the dangers of adult life soon to face his son. Whilst at college, Marcus has to traverse an American world that isn''t his own: facing off against ardent Christian, Dean Cauldwell, and falling in love with the beautiful Olivia Hutton. Indignation gleams with narrative muscle, as it twists and turns unpredictably, and extends - shockingly - beyond the confines of natural life.Trade ReviewIntricately wrought, passionate and fascinating... A late masterpiece * Financial Times *In Indignation, his power and intensity seem undiminished * New York Times *He is a writer of quite extraordinary skill and courage * London Review of Books *I relished Indignation. Roth writes with his trademark drive and fluency, on the knife blade between rage and laughter * Guardian *Roth reasserts his fictional mastery with a fine taut narrative about the frustrations of youth...every part of it is dovetailed into a story of compelling economy...a mid-20th-century tale of nemesis with all the intellectual and imaginative force of a great novelist writing at the height of his powers * Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis''People who say there aren''t any brilliant literary novels about contemporary England anymore have obviously never read this.'' Irvine WelshA brilliantly imagined and unsettling novel from the award-winning author of Heliopolis and The Amnesia ClinicThree solitary characters remember their shared past in a sprawling, derelict psychiatric hospital on the English coast: a turbulent summer in the aftermath of the hospital''s closure that culminated in a shocking, life-altering accident. But the more each tries to comprehend the past, the more elusive it becomes. Wreaking is an intricate, labyrinthine novel about the opiate power of place, the fragility of sanity and the fickle nature of memory.Trade ReviewThis stays with you; an eccentric wonder about a disaffected, dying man, living in an abandoned insane asylum and various sinister, satellite characters; it's one of the most lyrical, gorgeously descriptive English novels of recent years - bafflingly ignored by prize judges -- Alan Warner * The Week *There can be no doubting the remarkable scope of this writer’s imagination, nor the skill of his prose. He has a genius for atmosphere... If Charles Dickens is one influence, Breaking Bad is surely another -- Cressida Connolly * Spectator *A gripping exploration of mental illness… A compelling update of a Gothic novel… The real pleasure of this book is Mr Scudamore’s masterly and unflinching prose * The Economist *A quietly remarkable novel that resonates with universality * Literary Review *Wreaking itself is drawn brilliantly with both precise and pungent descriptions… The descriptions of teenage boredom by the sea and adult ennui in the city are stingingly realised… Sharply hewn, inventively structured and unnervingly written -- Stuart Evers * Observer *A self-conscious and self-reflexive novel. It is the building itself that looms largest… And though, like Thornfield and Manderley, we find Wreaking broken by time, weather and debt, it commands our attention * Times Literary Supplement *A creepy chronicle of abuse, abandonment and unrequited love… So much here is brilliant * Metro *Everything we most want to know, the author quietly looks away from, until the story becomes as layered, contorted and interrupted as the collapsing architecture of Wreaking itself. Then time straightens out and speeds up suddenly… Everything connects. Everything comes to light. Everything is revealed, yet somehow the buckling of time induced by subjectivity, madness and metaphor makes it all just as hard to see -- M. John Harrison * Guardian *The question of what constitutes madness... is intelligently explored. Bold, grotesque, bawdy...memorable * Independent On Sunday *Relentlessly inventive * Sunday Telegraph *Intensely imagined * Sunday Times *Settings don’t come much more Gothic than Wreaking, the derelict, decaying...psychiatric hospital of James Scudamore’s striking third novel * Daily Mail *This is the work of a writer totally at ease with, and confident in, his powers. A wonderfully assured novel with scope and ambition and with enough of a mystery at its heart to keep the reader hooked till the end * We Love This Book *We are left with the characters in our heads for days, and the sense of unease that Scudamore cleverly conjures up * Press Association Syndication *A twisted, unsettling tale of family lies and lonely souls * Shortlist *

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Book SynopsisA passionate bookshop owner. An elusive Irish author she must track down. A life adventure awaits. . .''The queen of uplifting, feel good romance'' AJ Pearce''Effortlessly lovable, warm and fun'' Closer''Katie Fforde is on sparkling form'' Independent ''Top-drawer romantic escapism'' Daily Mail__________Falling in love can be all too easy . . .When the bookshop where Laura works is about to close, she finds herself agreeing to help organise a literary festival.Laura''s initial excitement turns to dread when an innocent mistake leads the festival organisers to believe that Laura is a close friend of Dermot Flynn. An infamous writer at the top of their wish list and a notorious recluse to boot.Always one to rise to a challenge, Laura sets off for Ireland to convince her literary hero to attend the festival.Falling for him was never partTrade ReviewA great fun countryside romp with engaging characters and a narrative thrust that had me hooked to the end * Daily Mail *A sweet and endearing read * News of the World *Fforde's cosy style is strangely comforting and Laura's transformation from ingénue to confident and lustful young woman makes for an enjoyable summer read * Daily Telegraph *Heartfelt -- 4 stars * OK! *I was engrossed in this tale * Sun *

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Book Synopsis_________________________________________''Great fun'' The Times''The smell of chat and kachoris seems to waft from the page'' Daily TelegraphMeet Vish Puri, India''s most private investigator.Portly, persistent and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swathe through modern India''s swindlers, cheats and murderers.In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centres and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri''s main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri''s resources to investigate. How will he trace the fate of the girl, known only as Mary, in a population of more than one billion? Who is taking pot shots at him and his prize chilli plants? And why is his widowed ''Mummy-ji'' attempting to play sleuth when everyonTrade ReviewThe most original detective in years. Picture Hercule Poirot with an Indian accent, eating chili pakoras and riding in an auto rickshaw. Tarquin Hall has captured India in a way few Western writers have managed since Kipling. India's humor, commotion and vibrancy bursts from every page, exposing its vast, labyrinthine underbelly. Scintillating! -- Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph's HouseA brilliantly written humorous tale that vividly captures the sounds, smells and foibles of modern India -- Ayub Khan Din, writer of East is EastLively and quick-paced ... What Cara Black does for Paris, Hall achieves for India * Kirkus *Tubby, ingenious and hilarious, Delhi's most trusted PI, Vish Puri, is not easily forgotten. Properly disdainful of unoriginal crime-busters like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, his unique methods of detection deserve to be widely known and feted -- David Davidar, author of The Solitude of EmperorsEntertaining . . . Hall combines an insider's insight with the eclectic eye of a good foreign correspondent . . . The very opposite of the "exoticism" of which this kind of fiction is often accused. Instead of escaping into "another world", western readers are encouraged to see an unflattering reflection of their own values and desires * Financial Times *

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Book Synopsis______________________One wrong answer means death...The son of one of New York''s wealthiest families is snatched off the street. His parents can''t save him, because this kidnapper isn''t demanding money. Instead, he quizzes his prisoner on the price others pay for his life of luxury. In this exam, wrong answers are fatal.Detective Michael Bennett leads the investigation. With ten kids of his own, he can''t begin to understand what could lead someone to target anyone''s children. As another student disappears, one powerful family after another uses their leverage and connections to turn up the heat on the mayor, the press, anyone who will listen, to stop this killer. Their reach extends all the way to the FBI, who send their top Abduction Specialist, Agent Emily Parker. Bennett''s work life - and love life - suddenly get even more complicated.Before Bennett has a chance to protest the FBI''s intrusion on his case, the mastermind changes hi

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Book SynopsisSometimes the choice is too hard to bear...Nikki Grant is only twenty-one when she discovers she''s pregnant. Despite her parents'' disappointment and anger, she welcomes the news with joy. The baby will complete the happy home she shares with the man she adores, Spencer James. Baby Zac arrives and is perfect in every way. And with Spencer''s career taking off they are ready to make the big move to London. And then, on a day like any other, Nikki suddenly finds her life turned upside down by tragedy. As she becomes evermore embroiled in a world she cannot escape, the love between Nikki and her son is put to the kind of test no mother should ever have to face...Trade ReviewA tear-jerker, and a perfect blend of passion, heartache and intrigue * News of the World, 4 stars *Utterly compelling * Sun *Beautifully descriptive * Best *Well written with good characters and an original plot * No.1 Magazine *Harrowing but brilliantly written * Sun *

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Book SynopsisGladys Maude Winifred Mitchell or The Great Gladys' as Philip Larkin called her was born in 1901, in Cowley in Oxfordshire. She graduated in history from University College London and in 1921 began her long career as a teacher. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and her interest in witchcraft was encouraged by her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson. Her first novel, Speedy Death, was published in 1929 and introduced readers to Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, the detective heroine of a further sixty six crime novels. She wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career and was an early member of the Detection Club, alongside Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers.In 1961 she retired from teaching and, from her home in Dorset, continued to write, receiving the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger in 1976. Gladys Mitchell died in 1983.Trade ReviewThe marvel is that although Miss Mitchell has been so prolific, she has also been so good -- Edmund CrispinThe Great Gladys -- Philip LarkinMrs. Bradley is easily one of the most memorable personalities * Next Read *

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Book SynopsisA VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERYRediscover Gladys Mitchell one of the ''Big Three'' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.When psychoanalyst and detective Mrs Bradley''s grandson finds an old diary in her rented cottage it attracts the interest of this most unconventional of detectives, for the book''s owner - now deceased - was once suspected of the murders of both her aunt and cousin. Does the missing diary finally reveal what happened to old aunt Flora? Is the case of Bella Foxley really closed? And what happened to the boys from the local reformatory who went missing at the same time? As events unfold, Mrs. Bradley faces one of her most difficult cases to date, one that will keep readers guessing until the very end...Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you'll love Mrs Bradley.Trade ReviewCrime writing's best-kept secret * Scotsman *The Great Gladys -- Philip LarkinMrs. Bradley faces one of her most difficult cases to date, one that will keep readers guessing until the very end... * Next Read *

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Book SynopsisA magical, haunting' (Philippa Gregory) novel of a tragic love affair in a threatened worldIn 1649, Jan Brunt, a Dutchman, arrives in England to work on draining and developing the Great Level, an expanse of marsh in the heart of the fen country. It is here he meets Eliza, whose love overturns his ordered vision and whose act of resistance forces him to see the world differently. Jan flees to the New World, where the spirit of avarice is raging and his skills as an engineer are prized. Then one spring morning a boy delivers a note that prompts him to remember the fens, and confront all that was lost there.The most beautiful historical novel you'll read all year Extraordinary' Simon SchamaRichly involving The story of a strange and passionate relationship' GuardianIf you want to be utterly transported to another time, another place, read The Great Level. A haunting depiction of love and difference' Amanda VTrade ReviewStella Tillyard has done that magical thing - combined solid historical research with an ethereal sense of the past. Her New Amsterdam in America is as wonderfully realised as the shifting world of the Fens in England. It’s a haunting book with characters who stay with the reader as their lives unfold like a sea mist -- Philippa GregoryThe Great Level proves worth the seven-year wait… This is an impressive piece of work, rich in historical detail and human insight -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times *Rousing and heroic... this is a novel of large vision and careful detail... [Tillyard] paddles her coracle deep into little-known channels and conjure atmospheres as thick as still summer air over the meres... Richly involving… The story of a strange and passionate relationship -- Alexandra Harris * Guardian *Historian Stella Tillyard's first fictional outing, Tides of War, earned her a 2012 Orange Prize nomination. Her second novel similarly showcases her skills as a chronicler of period and place... Fans of Rose Tremain will find much to admire in Tillyard's richly detailed and atmospheric romance -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail *There is much to love in The Great Level - Tillyard writes with great authority...and the book has the smack of authenticity. The passages that Eliza narrates...are wonderful -- Antonia Senior * The Times *

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Book SynopsisOnce close friends, writers Gwyn Barry and Richard Tull now find themselves in fierce competition.While Tull has spiralled into a mire of literary obscurity and belletristic odd jobs, Barry's atrocious attempts at novels have brought him untold success. Prizes, prestige and wealth abound, and from far below Tull can only watch, stewing in torment. Until, that is, resentment turns to revenge. Consumed by the question of how one writer can really hurt another, Tull's quest for an answer will unleash increasingly violent urges on both writers' lives. A funny, vicious portrait of literary London' Evening StandardTrade ReviewA book of brilliant energies, a comedy of enraged passions. Amis's writing shares the grandeur of the big American writers * The Times *Martin Amis is an iconic figure. He cracks out memorable sentences like a ringmaster in the circus of the grotesque. He is the good-looking bad guy of late-twentieth-century Eng Lit - faster on the phrase than any of the other inky cowboys on the streetsAmis has made previous incursions into the grubby end of Ladbroke Grove and the infection of urban self-pity. But he's never been quite so funny about it * Independent *Young men adore Martin Amis and older ones envy him. Many imitate him. Many want to be him. He can be cool and raw, smart and cool. He's sexy, but that's not all. Now we want the Information * Observer *A funny, vicious portrait of literary London * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisBrian Chikwava is among the exciting new generation of writers emerging from the African continent. His short story Seventh Street Alchemy was awarded the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing. He has been a Charles Pick fellow at the University of East Anglia, and lives in London.Trade ReviewA debut novel at once lyrical and gritty, offering an unsentimental view of the African immigrant experience in London's Brixton * Scotsman *It's the darkest of comedies, fuelled by an eccentric, wholly convincing voice * Observer *An hilarious and wrenching examination of immigrant life... From a prodigiously talented and uncompromising writer -- Ali SmithChikwava has created an utterly compelling anti-hero... Mesmerising * Guardian *A writer to watch. Brian Chikwava's language is lively and witty and it turns the London you know upside down -- Maggie Gee

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Book SynopsisThe Doctor will see you now....Meet Peter Brown, a young Manhattan ER Doctor who has a past he''d prefer to stay hidden. When a figure from the old days emerges it looks increasingly unlikely that his secret will stay intact. Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is given three months to live, and it''s clear to Peter that the clock is ticking for both of them. He must do whatever it takes to keep him - and his patient - alive. It''s time to beat the reaper....Trade ReviewHold on to your hats. Josh Bazell's first novel is a roller-coaster ride from the very first page, fast, furious, and - believe it or not - funny...A cross between ER and the Sopranos, this is House on speed, with a little Dexter thrown in and wisecracking dialogue to boot. It's breathtakingly accomplished for a debut. Bazell is a name to watch * Daily Mail *Funny and outrageous, with a great central character and the energy and frenetic pace sustained throughout...Determinedly cynical about the US medical system and with informative footnotes * Guardian *The novel speeds you like an emergency-room patient on a gurney through 300 pages of adrenalin-fuelled action, medical drama, mob dealings and stomach-turning violence * Scotland on Sunday *Beat the Reaper is way cool and ice cold. A ferocious read -- Don WinslowBeat the Reaper is a blast. Josh Bazell blew me away with this story that is as relentless as a bullet -- Michael Connelly

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Book SynopsisBoone Daniels, a laid-back private investigator, gathers with his surfing buddies on Pacific beach. There''s no surf, but the Dawn Patrol are out in force regardless...it''s what they do. Having no work to do, and no real reason to go to the office, Boone stays for the second shift on the daily surfing clock - the Gentleman''s Hour; and ends up taking on a hated matrimonial case. But that soon becomes the least of his worries.When The Sundowner, a symbolic icon of the San Diego surf scene, sees a murderous dispute between a young surfer and a member of the territorial Rockpile Crew, the painful truth that violence is seeping into the surf community can no longer be ignored. So when asked to help on the defence by current love interest Petra Hall, Boone knows there will be outrage from both the community, and the rest of Dawn Patrol.As the two cases overlap in unexpected ways, an isolated Boone finds himself struggling to stay afloat as the water gets deeper...and mor

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Book SynopsisMartin Sturrock desperately needs a psychiatrist. The problem? He is one.Emily is a traumatised burns victim, Arta a Kosovan refugee recovering from a rape. David Temple is a longterm depressive, while the Rt Hon Ralph Hall MP lives in terror of his drink problem being exposed. Very different Londoners, but they share one thing: every week they spend an hour at the Prince Regent hospital, revealing the secrets of their psyche to Professor Martin Sturrock. Little do they know that Sturrock''s own mind is not the reassuring place they believe it to be. For years he has hidden in his work, ignoring his demons. But now his life is falling apart, and as his ghosts come back to haunt him, the only person he can turn to is a patient. Set over a life-changing weekend, Alastair Campbell''s astonishing first novel delves deep into the human mind to create a gripping portrait of the strange dependency between patient and doctor. Both a comedy and tragedy of ordinaTrade ReviewA sympathetic foray into mental instability ... Campbell's own experience of breakdown brings an intensity to Sturrock's decline * Financial Times *A serious subject adddressed with compassion, intelligence and sensitivity ... this is an emotionally engaging and thought-provoking book * The Times *Extremely absorbing, moving and compassionate portrayal of ordinary human beings exhibiting extraordinary courage in challenging circumstances ... If Campbell writes more novels, I'll certainly read them * The Independent *Campbell has written a highly sensitive novel ... A moving account of people's suffering and search for help -- Dr David Sturgeon, University College London Hospital * The Guardian *An extraordinarily open and brave novel about weakness. Or, more accurately, humility ... its power comes from a clearly articulated insight into the darker workings of the human mind and the complex nature of mental health * The Mirror *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Maxwell was born in Illinois in 1908. He was the author of a distinguished body of work: six novels, three short story collections, an autobiographical memoir and a collection of literary essays and reviews. A New Yorker editor for forty years, he helped to shape the prose and careers of John Updike, John Cheever, John O'Hara and Eudora Welty. So Long, See You Tomorrow won the American Book Award, and he received the PEN/Malamud Award. He died in New York in 2000.Trade ReviewWilliam Maxwell's tales, long and short, have the elusive ability to reveal us to ourselves -- Erica Wagner * The Times *However different their settings the sensibility remains constant. It is decorous, highly civilised and deeply thoughtful -- Anthony Quinn * Observer *All of them share the effect of a brilliant view - as though a window were opened on a contained and vivid scene...There is a rare clarity and economy here - along with that wise measured humanity -- Penelope Lively * Spectator *The stories are formidable...we know we are in the presence of a master craftsman * Sydney Morning Herald *Maxwell's triumph is to bring brightness and a seething, submerged emotion to an America long dead... he offers us scrupulously executed, moving landscapes of American's twentieth century, and they do not fade -- Claire Messud * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisIt's 1950s Jerusalem. Hannah Gonen has just married and is thrilled and pained by her young well-meaning husband, Michael. Haunted by her dreams of two boys who disappeared from Jerusalem after the establishment of the state of Israel, Hannah gradually withdraws from her husband into a private world of fantasy and suppressed desires.Trade ReviewHe has that mixture of lyrical intensity, utter seriousness and capacity for describing life in a few words which characterises some of the best Russian classical authors * Melvyn Bragg *There is no novelist writing today who catches the feeling of the moment more surely than Amos Oz * Scotsman *Amos Oz is one of the finest novelists of this entire period.MY MICHAEL is a beautiful work of great depth and in some indescribable way lingers in the mind as a lyric song to his country's people as much as a moving love story. * Arthur Miller *Amos Oz is a great writer because he tells stories about real people in a way that no-one else can.I not only get joy from reading his work, but as a writer I learn from it, and take example by its excellence, having a great respect for his genius.Finally, these reasons are irrelevant, because there are certain writers in the world who, if you pick up one of their books by chance just as you decide to hang yourself, in despair at not getting very far with one of your own, will save you from doing so.Amos Oz, for me, is one of these. * Alan Sillitoe *Amos Oz is a commanding artist who ranks with the most important writers of our time.MY MICHAEL, an early work, reveals him to have been from the first everything we know him to be today: a visionary fabricator of breathtaking power and wit, as well as a crafty interpreter of difficult souls. * Cynthia Ozick *

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Book SynopsisKurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and studied biochemistry at Cornell University. During the Second World War he served in Europe and, as a prisoner of was in Germany, witnessed the destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers, an experience which inspired his classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five. He is the author of thirteen other novels, three collections of stories and five non-fiction books. Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007.Trade ReviewVonnegut is masterful at quickly sketching a character who you instantly recognise and immeadiately are willing to follow... no matter the plot, you as the reader know that by the end of the story, you will get somewhere. That Vonnegut will tell you something with candour and clarity -- Dave EggersA cool writer, at once throwaway and passionate and very funny * Financial Times *A satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion, a cynic who wants to believe -- Jay McInerneyUnimitative and inimitable social satirist * Harper's *A laughing prophet of doom * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisJane has had her baby and is living along with him in a country cottage. Her idyllic time there is soon complicated by the arrival of Toby, the love of her life, and her friend Dorothy. The two women start up a shop in the village, and it is their changing fortunes and feelings for the men on whom so much of their lives are staked which form the core of this funny and vivdly-told novel. The Backward Shadow is a worthy sequel to The L-Shaped RoomTrade ReviewCharacters so lively and believable they give the impression of wanting to jump right out of the page and run * Guardian *Lynne Reid Banks is one of the most readable, delightfull and accomplished novelists writing today -- Edna O'Brien

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Book SynopsisGraham Greene was born in 1904. He worked as a journalist and critic, and in 1940 became literary editor of the Spectator. He was later employed by the Foreign Office. As well as his many novels, Graham Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, three books of autobiography, two of biography and four books for children. He also wrote hundreds of essays, and film and book reviews. Graham Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. He died in April 1991.Trade ReviewOne of the two or three novelists who really count -- V.S. PritchettA slim and curious tale * The Times *At once Dickensian and new, an exploration of the soul of a young boy and a portrait of sad loving by memorable adults * Chicago Tribune *In this short, skillful book we enter those disparate worlds Greene has made his own - the England of Brighton Rock and the exotic Central American territories in which his restless talent has so often roamed * New York Times *A rattling good yarn. Under the spur of Greene's sharp, light touch, its narrative gallops along. Opening with a chase across a playground, rapidly followed by an abduction, it nimbly twists and turns through a maze of imposture, jewel robbery and fleeings from the law before leaping overseas for a final burst of international espionage, weapon-smuggling, freedom fighting and political murder * Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis''A tale of true tragedy - a man of potential brought down by his own fatal flaw - wonderfully vivid and strong'' Joanna TrollopeThe Mayor of Casterbridge is a man haunted by his past. In his youth he betrayed his wife and baby daughter in a shocking incident that led him to swear never to touch alcohol again for twenty-one years. He has since risen from his humble origins to become a respected pillar of the community in Casterbridge, but his secrets cannot stay hidden forever and he has many hard lessons left to learn. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LUCY HUGHES-HALLETTTrade ReviewI could have picked any Hardy but this is wonderful. He is so good at portraying the highs and lows of human emotions and endeavours and setting them against the vast background of time and space that puts the smallness of the human condition into perspective -- Jane Asher * Daily Express *What I love about Hardy is that anybody of any age can get into his books because he's such a good writer. All you've got to do is start reading. I could have picked any of his books but this is my favourite -- Matthew Wright (The Wright Stuff) * Daily Express *It's the most tragic tale of a man who did a great wrong (he sells his wife and daughter) and pays for it later. The way Henchard arranges his life just so, only to see it wrecked and ruined by Fate - it makes me howl with pathos -- author John Wright * Independent *You have to hand it to Thomas Hardy. He knew how to come up with the blackest, most fascinating of characters (principally, corn merchant and mayor Michael Henchard), then put them in a cracking predicament * Mirror *A truly wonderful book -- Actor Brian Cox * Independent on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisDiscover this bestselling classic from the author of The Gustav Sonata, charting Robert Merivel's rise and fall through glittering seventeenth-century society. When a twist of fate delivers an ambitious young medical student to the court of King Charles II, he is suddenly thrust into a vibrant world of luxury and opulence. Blessed with a quick wit and sparkling charm, Robert Merivel rises quickly, soon finding favour with the King, and privileged with a position as paper groom' to the youngest of the King's mistresses.But by falling in love with her, Merivel transgresses the one rule that will cast him out from his new-found paradiseA most beautiful and original novel' IndependentTriumphant' Sunday TelegraphDazzling' New York Review of Books *Rose Tremain has sold over ONE MILLION books. Enter her vivid historical world*Trade ReviewFor a vivid – and funny – fictional re-creation of the era, Tremain’s Restoration is hard to beat. * The Times *Richly evocative novel. * BBC History Magazine *Triumphant * Sunday Telegraph *Gripping * Herald *A most beautiful and original novel * Independent *

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Book SynopsisNevil Shute was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing, London. After attending the Dragon School and Shrewsbury School, he studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. He worked as an aeronautical engineer and published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they went on to have two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death on 12 January 1960. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), No Highway (1948), A Town Like Alice (1950) and On the Beach (1957).Trade ReviewSomething about this author's calm, deliberate style creates unexpected excitement... we are warmed by the justice and sheer pleasure of it * Independent *Nevil Shute made me yearn for a faithful, plodding, Shute-type of man. I imagined us trekking across the Australian outback, finding a run-down hamlet, and then transforming it together until death or flood parted us * The Times *

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Book SynopsisNevil Shute was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing, London. After attending the Dragon School and Shrewsbury School, he studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. He worked as an aeronautical engineer and published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they went on to have two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death on 12 January 1960. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), No Highway (1948), A Town Like Alice (1950) and On the Beach (1957).Trade ReviewShute is an honest exciting adventure writer who blends narrative gift with a fine power of description -- John BetjemanExhibits his talents at their provocative best * New York Times *That shattering, unaffected, literary style of his is wholly deceptive...is, in fact, masterly -- H.E. Bates

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Book SynopsisNevil Shute was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing, London. After attending the Dragon School and Shrewsbury School, he studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. He worked as an aeronautical engineer and published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they went on to have two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death on 12 January 1960. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), No Highway (1948), A Town Like Alice (1950) and On the Beach (1957).Trade ReviewOne of the happiest books which war has called into being * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisRaymond Carver said it was possible ''to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language and endow these things - a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman''s earring - with immense, even startling power''. Nowhere is this alchemy more striking than in the title story of Cathedral in which a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see. Many view this story, and indeed this collection, as a watershed in the maturing of Carver''s work to a more confidently poetic style.Trade ReviewThe twelve stories collected in his book Cathedral are remarkable for the originality of vision which he manages to convey in scrupulously simple prose. Carver's is a considerable and an enterprising talent * Guardian *Cathedral ought to establish his reputation as one of the most original new voices in fiction to appear from the United States for many years -- Bill Buford * Times Literary Supplement *Carver is a writer of astonishing compassion and honesty, utterly free of pretence and affection, his eye set only on describing and revealing the world as he sees it. His eye is so clear, it almost breaks your heart * Washington Post *An important book in a unique career * New York Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisWith this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story.Trade ReviewCarver is the king of short fiction. His writing hits you in the pit of your stomach, and haunts you with its disenchantment. It's almost visceral. -- Natasha Lunn * Red *Carver has made himself the natural successor to his true mentor, Chekhov * Financial Times *He is alert to the unique, inconspicuous incident, when a life or a marriage may change course decisively * Sunday Telegraph *Carver's stories celebrate some lasting aspects of the human condition, however minimal, conjuring up a quality of fellow feeling which gives the stories a compelling, dry-eyed poignancy, a melancholy but intensely moving authenticity -- William Boyd * Daily Telegraph *There is nobody else like him. In some ways his pared-down style is an extreme development of the Hemingway style, but Carver writes about women and the ways men relate to them far more convincingly than Hemingway ever did * Frank Kermode *

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Book SynopsisThese seven stories were the last that Carver wrote. Among them is one of his longest, ''Errand'', in which he imagines the death of Chekhov, a writer Carver hugely admired and to whose work his own was often compared. This fine story suggests that the greatest of modern short-story writers may, in the year before his untimely death, have been flexing his muscles for a longer work.Trade ReviewCarver's stories celebrate some lasting aspects of the human condition, however minimal, conjuring up a quality of fellow feeling, which gives the stories a compelling, dry-eyed poignancy, a melancholy but intensely moving authenticity -- William Boyd * Daily Telegraph *This dazzling little collection is a treat * Guardian *All the stories in this collection are superb. Each sucks the reader, with magical speed, into the hearts of the characters, while seeming to say almost nothing about them. And they are not always gloomy, these hearts * Independent *A collection of stories it would be hard to forget -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisW E Bowman (Author) W. E. Bowman (1912-1985) was a civil engineer who spent his free time hill-walking, painting and writing (unpublished) books on the Theory of Relativity. He was married with two children.Bill Bryson (Introducer) Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He is the author of eighteen books and holds the record of having the most bestsellers of any author on the Sunday Times bestseller list in the last fifty years. A Short History of Nearly Everything, first published in 2003, spent 106 weeks in the chart, won both the Aventis Prize and the Descartes Prize and is the biggest-selling non-fiction book of the twenty-first century.Bill Bryson is a former Chancellor of Durham University and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. He lives in England.Trade ReviewI just love this book. Everything about it is nearly perfect... hugely enjoyable and brilliantly sustained. * From the introduction by Bill Bryson *An amazing book about mountain climbing from 1956. Laugh-out-loud literature -- Tim Key * Guardian *This wonderfully funny parody of adventure stories was first written in the 1950s but is just as fresh today with a truly brilliant comic narrator whose commentary on the expedition members is unintentionally hilarious. Buy it * Sunday Mirror *Wonderful. Rum Doodle does for mountaineering what Three Men in a Boat did for Thames-going or Catch-22 did for the Second World War. It is simply an account of the leader of an expedition up Rum Doodle, a 40,000 and a half foot peak in the Himalayas, in the same way that Scoop is simply a tale about newsgathering in Africa. The tone is nearer to Pooter than anyone else I can think of, but the flavour is all W.E. Bowman's own * Sunday Times *This gentle, deadly parody of the tight-arsed old school of British exploration narratives is seemingly a cult book among mountaineers, but it has been virtually unknown to the reading public since its first publication in 1956 * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisBut then the friend who found her body approaches Detective Erlendur with a tape of a séance that María attended before her death and his curiosity is aroused.Driven by a need to find answers, Erlendur begins an unofficial investigation into María's death.Trade Reviewone of the most haunting crime novels you can expect to read: unsentimental, yet informed throughout by Indridason’s extraordinary empathy with human suffering * The Times *An intelligent, gripping and moody tale with superior characterisation -- Marcel Berlins * The Times *The narrative grips, the writing, excellently translated by Cribb, is resonant and lyrical, and the atmosphere is chillingly creepy -- Laura Wilson * Guardian *Hypothermia is one of the most haunting crime novels I've read in a long time, unsentimental yet informed by the author's extraordinary empathy with human suffering -- Joan Smith * Sunday Times *An insightful human story, beautifully written and translated -- Jessica Mann * Literary Review *

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Book Synopsis_________________________THE LEGENDARY THRILLER THAT CREATED DR HANNIBAL LECTERWill Graham was a brilliant profiler of criminals for the FBI - until he suffered terrible injuries in the process of capturing Dr Hannibal ''the Cannibal'' Lecter.Years later, a serial killer nicknamed ''the Tooth Fairy'' is massacring entire families each full moon. With the FBI desperate for progress, Will reluctantly agrees to consult. But he soon realises that he alone can''t crack the case; he needs the help of the only mind even better than his own at understanding the mentalities of psychopaths.The mind of Hannibal Lecter.But Hannibal is playing his own twisted game from the asylum for the criminally insane. Will isn''t alone in getting advice from the cannibal. So is the Tooth Fairy - the man haunted by visions of the murderous Red Dragon...Trade Review"The best popular novel published since The Godfather" -- Stephen King "Completely gripping" Time Out "Something out of the ordinary for strong nerves and stomachs, an intricately crafted chiller" Observer

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Book Synopsis_________________________HANNIBAL LECTER WASN''T BORN A MONSTER.HE WAS MADE ONE.Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front of World War II, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He will not speak of what happened to him and his family. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him.Hannibal''s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France. There, Hannibal lives with his uncle and his uncle''s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki, who helps him to heal - and flourish.But Hannibal''s demons are not so easily defeated. Throughout his young life, they visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn - and in the fog of traumatic memory, he discovers that he has gifts far beyond what he imagined...Trade Review"Praise for Hannibal: Quite simply a compelling and brilliant thriller" Daily Mirror "The thrills, horror, sly erudition and sheer exquisite writing make this so much more than another serial killer novel ... [It] reaches almost sublime levels of gothic grandeur at its conclusion. If only all bestsellers were so rewarding" Guardian "A masterpiece... Chillingly brilliant" Observer "Quite simply this is the best-written thriller to dominate the market in years ... A literary evocation of the diabolical to compare with Goethe and Gogol. Honestly" The Times "A gut-churning, nail-biting, skin-crawling, often lyrical triumph - addictive on every level" Daily Express

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Book SynopsisThe first installment of a two-book Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker adventure, set against the backdrop of the Clone Wars! Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are on a secret mission to one of the many worlds caught in the middle of the struggle between the Republic and the Separatists. A pastoral planet, Lanteeb wants only to be left alone to survive -- but it is the source of what could be one of the most devastatingly destructive weapons ever. If this potential weapon were to fall into the hands of the Separatists, uncounted worlds would fall. But should the Republic succeed in destroying it first, one world that needs it to survive will be annihilated. A frightening dilemma that Obi-Wan and Anakin will have to untangle, if they can get in and out of the occupied planet alive...

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Book SynopsisKAREN MILLER has worked as a public servant, a receptionist, in the horse industry, in local government, in publishing, in telecommunications, as a college lecturer, and she ran her own science fiction/fantasy/mystery bookshop. So far she's written six mainstream fantasy novels and two Stargate: SG-1 tie-ins.

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Book SynopsisMario Puzo was born in New York. He is the author of the bestselling novel The Godfather and many other acclaimed novels. Puzo also wrote many screenplays, including those for the three Godfather movies, for which he won two academy awards. He died at his home in Long Island, New York, at the age of seventy-eight.Trade ReviewKeeps readers turning pages all the way to an explosive showdown * Daily Mail *Headlong entertainment, bubbling over with corruption, betrayal, assassinations, Richter-scale romance, and, of course, family values * Time *Hugely effective fiction...[Puzo] keeps his pact with readers to unfailingly deliver the goods * Literary Review *Puzo is a master storyteller with an uncanny facility for details that force the reader to keep the pages turning. Call it a literary meat-hook * USA Today *Puzo’s genius was to create a world so thick with personality and behaviour . . . that reading his books becomes a seriously guilty pleasure * New York Post *

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Book SynopsisJenneen, Kate, Ellamarie and Ashley are enviable women. They are desirable and powerful, with glamorous jobs in the media and the theatre and, most importantly, the closest of friendships. But each of the friends has a dark secret, and none of them can ever be entirely safe from the passion, deceit and danger which threatens to seduce and then destroy them.

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Book Synopsis__________________________________Corrie Browne is an ordinary girl with extraordinary ambitions. Determined to find the father she has never known, her search takes her from the quiet Suffolk village where she lives, to a new life in London, a fast-paced television career - and to three people who come to dominate her life.Luke, charismatic, blond and charming, is the only one to make Corrie feel welcome at TW TV and the only one to recognise her talent. Cristoff, an internationally famous film director, is the man who teaches her everything he knows about sex and passion. And Annelise is her boss and friend - a woman about whom Corrie knows a secret that must never be revealed. Three colleagues - all of whom are to play an important role in Corrie''s search for love and success.One of whom intends Corrie''s ultimate destruction.Trade ReviewSpellbinding . . . you just keep turning the pages, with the atmosphere growing more and more intense as the story leads to its dramatic climax * Daily Mail *An irresistible blend of intrigue and passion, and the consequences of secrets and betrayal * Woman *

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Book SynopsisAllyson Jaymes has it all - celebrity, power, and a glamorous marriage. Until her world is destroyed by the bitterest betrayal of all: her husband''s explosive affair with her 19-year-old assistant, Tessa Dukes.Tessa''s ambitions burn fiercely. Her chilling manipulation of fame and her steady destruction of so many dreams and ambitions lead all concerned into a fatal minefield of sexual obsession, psychotic jealousy and deadly treachery.Moving from the dazzling, yet sinister, lights of London, to the deceptive haven of Italy''s romantic Amalfi Coast, Cruel Venus is a suspense-filled story of love at its very best - and absolute worst.

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Book SynopsisIt is one of the more surprising facts about Old England that one can still find families living in the same houses their ancestors built centuries before and on land that has belonged to them since before the Norman Conquest. The Gropes of Grope Hall are one such family.... The Gropes are an old English family based in Northumberland, separated from the rest of society and as eccentric as they come. It is a line dominated by strong-willed and oversexed women, determined to produce more female heirs regardless of whether their desired partners are willing ... At the dawn of the new millennium, timid and gormless teenager Esmond is abducted and lured to Grope Hall by a descendant of the Gropes. Young Esmond is powerless to escape, and his kidnap sets in motion a stream of farcical events that will have readers laughing out loud. Tom Sharpe''s trademark humour abounds in this new novel, marking him out once again as an outstanding and unique British storTrade ReviewA major craftsman in the art of farce...vengeful, chaotic, Swiftian in his tastes, cartoonish in his extremes, and above all wild and amusing * Observer *Britain's leading practitioner of black humour * Punch *Tom Sharpe serves up the loudest laughs in literary comedy. He is the great post-Waugh humorist, the Wodehouse who dares plunge into the bottomless vulgarity and hysteria of our times, and a rattling good companion on a train journey * Mail on Sunday *The funniest novelist writing today * The Times *This is a romp with many of the staples of Sharpe's bestselling comedy -- Harry Ritchie * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisRuth Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, and will be remembered as a legend in her own lifetime. Her groundbreaking debut novel, From Doon With Death, was first published in 1964 and introduced the reader to her enduring and popular detective, Inspector Reginald Wexford, who went on to feature in twenty-four of her subsequent novels.With worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, Rendell was a regular Sunday Times bestseller. Her sixty bestselling novels include police procedurals, some of which have been successfully adapted for TV, stand-alone psychological mysteries, and a third strand of crime novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Very much abreast of her times, the Wexford books in particular often engaged with social or political issues close to her heart.Rendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live FlesTrade ReviewOne of the best novelists writing today -- P.D. JamesThe most brilliant mystery novelist of our time -- Patricia CornwellProbably the greatest living crime writer in the world -- Ian Rankin[Wexford] has become an old friend who gets better with age * Herald *Rendell has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing. She displays her peerless skill in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisSUSAN HILL has been a professional writer for over fifty years. Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and a Somerset Maugham, and have been shortlisted for the Booker. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I'm the King of the Castle, In the Springtime of the Year and The Mist in the Mirror. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as the Simon Serrailler series of crime novels. The play of her ghost story The Woman in Black is one of the longest running in the history of London's West End. In 2020 she was awarded a damehood (DBE) for services to literature. She has two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.Trade ReviewStunning * Ruth Rendell *Exhilarating...addictive...fascinating * Independent *A master storyteller * Sunday Telegraph *THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN1. 'I loved this book. Masterly and satisfying. The result is stunning' Ruth Rendell2. 'This book must be judged as a potential successor to the great sequence of detective writing by P.D. James and Ruth Rendall ... excellent' Daily Telegraph4. 'Gripping ... and subtle' Daily Mail * reviews *Fans of Hill's earlier work like The Woman in Black will appreciate that she can still weave a jolly good story... Minor characters acquire an extra dimension in Hill's experienced hands... Crime fans on the look out for intelligent examples of the genre will enjoy The Risk of Darkness * Time Out *

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Book Synopsis*Number #1 Bestseller**BEFORE TRAINSPOTTING CAME SKAGBOYS Mark Renton has it all: he's good-looking, young, with a pretty girlfriend and a bright future.Trade ReviewMasterful… its banter, outrage and razor wit sing off the page * Independent *Brilliant and even more thrilling than its predecessor * Mail on Sunday *Quite simply a masterpiece * Scotsman *A brilliantly funny, scary, sweeping novel with all the energy of Welsh’s debut * Independent on Sunday *Funny…visceral and true… Welsh’s finest work to date * The Times *

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Book SynopsisSimon Axler is one of America''s leading classical stage actors, but his talent - his magic - has deserted him. All the spontaneity and unthinking impulsiveness that made him great has been replaced by a paralysing self-consciousness. Overwhelmed, Axler''s wife promptly leaves him, and Axler checks into a psychiatric hospital. It is only when he begins an affair with Pegeen - formerly a lesbian of 17 years - that Axler''s regeneration (and then his final catastrophe) can begin.Trade ReviewA literary colossus, whose ability to inspire, astonish and enrage his readers is undiminished' * Washington Post *There is a clarity, almost a ruthlessness, to his work, which makes the experience of reading any of his books a bracing, wild ride... He is the last of the giants * The Times *Roth...knows no limits, which is part of the fun of reading him * New Stateman *While the other big beasts of his literary generation lost it one by one, Roth has enjoyed a flowering of late form barely seen since Yeats. * Literary Review *Roth is no longer a novelist of comic exuberance, but of thoughtful meditation about life and increasingly death; he is our surviving laureate of lateness. His new work will not detain you long, but it will linger * Telegraph *

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