Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn elegant, enthralling novel. I found I couldn't stop reading this
intimiste epic of social change in the years leading up to the First World War. It has the lustre of life, beautiful and poignant -- ADAM FOULDS
This poised, Jamesian debut novel about a Manchester family in the lead up to the first world war is a masterclass in detail and atmosphere ... As with Breugel’s painting, it’s the incidental which is momentous, the everyday given such intimate attention that it becomes extraordinary … Reading this book feels like stepping through a hushed and ornate museum, or a model village whose simulacrum of real life is so perfect as to be unsettling * OBSERVER *
Super-assured ... Wholly convincing lives, described and written with great limpid precision of language -- WILLIAM BOYD
A wonderful evocation of period - through language, clothes, objects - any reader will be irresistibly transported to Manchester and the lives of this strange Edwardian family -- TIM PEARS
Captures the broad canvas of a vibrant city, as well as the fine grain of daily life … A deeply satisfying meshing of the vast sweep of history with the familiar textures of lives as they are lived * GUARDIAN *
Exquisite * METRO *
Immaculately written … the detail and the dialogue are acutely rendered * LITERARY REVIEW *
Immaculately written … O’Riordan imbues his narrative with an acutely modern awareness of power and capitalism * THE TIMES *
Elegant and engaging … Beautifully observed detail and skilful evocation of the turbulence of the time * DAILY MAIL *
It's bloody brilliant -- GUY GARVEY
Beguiling ... A read to warm a winter evening * DAILY MAIL, Books of the Year *
Strong on atmosphere … Lyrical * TABLET *
Compelling ... The novel's considered portrait of upper-class lives brings a Jamesian quality to this debut * IRISH TIMES *
O’Riordan’s prose is exquisite, and his tone cool and ironic, while subtly drawing attention to the barriers of class, gender and sexuality * FINANCIAL TIMES *
