Yates is such a magnificent writer

Bittersweet, elegiac, this is Richard Yates's gentlest book

A first-class work of imagination

In an age embarrassed by story-telling... Yates tell stories we believe

A gifted and intelligent novelist

CK Stead, New Zealand's most distinguished man of letters - scholar, critic and poet, as well as novelist - has written a fiction that is remarkable, intelligent and moving

Brilliantly imagined...Among Stead's many achievements is a convincing social, political and physical backdrop...his creation of a coherent, rival story - clever, moving and sometimes witty, with fully human characters - is nothing short of a revelation

A pleasingly unpredictable mix of traditional and radical... It's clever, thought-provoking

'A grand recounting of the second Punic War...Durham's epic is truly a big, magnificent, sprawling story complete with a sizable cast of compelling characters, intricately drawn battle scenes and fluid, graceful prose'