The best thing about After Earth is its universe

Johannesburg is fertile ground for a crime writer… Strong and vivid, City of Blood is the coming-of-age story of both Siphiwe and the slightly older Progress… There is plenty of action, but also, amid the chaos and carnage, a sense of redemption

Explosive and emotional, a journey to the dark side you won't forget

Shows how a simple act of kindness can have catastrophic consequences... Villiers gives an urgent desperation to the mounting danger as her tale heads towards its grand-scale showdown

MD. Villiers' remarkable debut novel is a coming-of-age story, fast-moving, thrilling and thought-provoking. Her plot is well-developed, her prose lively, occasionally lyrical but always clear and direct...[she] writes a mean action scene. Her characters too, are a joy

A quite stunning first novel... weaving together of so many scams, double-crosses, crimes and betrayals committed by a large and fluid cast of characters, that at times I thought Elmore Leonard was directing the plot. It is that good..a superior piece of work

Set in the dangerous and violent streets of Johannesburg. A debut with a stunning evocation of place and an original, engaging hero. Fast-moving and vivid, this thought-provoking thriller is a story of coming of age, revenge and redemption

A human drama in which the crime element sits alongside a coming-of-age story and an exploration of what life’s like for those at the bottom of the pile in the city

Great fun

Hilarious

an enjoyable creepy read with the psychological depth that Sophie Hannah is known for

this bestselling writer knows how to pile on the tension ... and her ending is chillingly, memorably disturbing

Sophie Hannah is a genius at creating and building tension and this book is no different.

a beautifully constructed, atmospheric chiller which I highly recommend

Her trademark precision-layered structure creates a multi-dimensional maze that holds at its centre a revelation which is truly hair-raising

Cool, calculating and utterly chilling… to be gulped down with all the lights on and someone to grab when the sense of menace grows too great.

Sophie Hannah is a real star.

Sophie Hannah has quickly established herself as a doyenne of the 'home horror' school of psychological tension, taking domestic situations and wringing from them dark, gothic thrills.

Hannah is a master of intense psychological thrillers . . . Full of twists and turns, and terrifying, too.

She grips from start to finish - a grip which held me against my will because the sustained atmosphere of mild hysteria is hard to take . . . I couldn't put it down.

NoViolet Bulawayo has created a world that lives and breathes - and fights, kicks, screams and scratches, too. She has clothed it in words and given it a voice at once dissonant and melodic, utterly distinct

NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names is an exquisite and powerful first novel, filled with an equal measure of beauty and horror and laughter and pain. The lives (and names) of these characters will linger in your mind, and heart, long after you're done reading the book. No Violet Bulawayo is definitely a writer to watch

I knew this writer was going to blow up. Her honesty, her voice, her formidable command of her craft -- all were apparent from the first page.

I was bowled over... by NoViolet Bulawayo's shatteringly good first novel, We Need New Names

NoViolet Bulawayo is a powerful, authentic, nihilistic voice - feral, feisty, funny - from the new Zimbabwean generation that has inherited Robert Mugabe's dystopia

A work of gritty naturalism

Witty... ebullient... heartbreaking... our feisty heroine's sparkle never dims

A truthful, profound snapshot of the kind of life that often gets overlooked. Moving, fresh, enlightening. A fantastic novel

A fresh, engaging take on the relationship between rich and poor

A bittersweet coming-of-age tale of displacement during the southern African nation's 'lost decade'

A tale of our time, a powerful condemnation of global inequality from the point of view of a 10-year-old in impossible circumstances... a stunning piece of literary craftsmanship

Bulawayo, whose prose is warm and clear and unfussy, maintains Darling's singular voice throughout, even as her heroine struggles to find her footing. Her hard, funny first novel is a triumph.

Wonderfully, this is a novel whipped with the complexities of African identities in a post-colonial and globalised world and its most compelling theme is that of contemporary displacement, a theme that will resonate with many readers

This is a young author to watch

This is a very readable tale, thanks to some excellent writing and its central character: a likeable heroine in a difficult world

We Need New Names is a distinct and hyper-contemporary treatment of the old You Can’t Go Home Again mould, and the book has more than enough going for it to easily graduate from the Booker longlist to the final six

deeply felt and fiercely written first novel

Bulawayo's novel may scream Africa, but her deft and often comic prose captures memories and tastes, among them the bitterness of disappointment, that transcend borders

Bulawayo excels... there is an inevitable nod to Achebe and the verbal delights and child's-eye view of the world is redolent of The God of Small Things. Otherwise, the magic is all Bulawayo's own

Proof again that the Caine prize for African writers really knows how to pick a winner… [It’s] a tour de force. Ten-year-old Darling is an unforgettable and necessary new voice: add her to the literary cannon

This brilliant novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

An exceptionally fine novel, as powerful and memorable as Coetzee's magnificent Disgrace... We need new novels like this – authentic, original and cathartic

There is no doubt that a new star of African female writing is truly born. The one-to-watch

Follow ten-year-old Darling from the Paradise shantytown to America in this searing indictment of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe

Shocking, often heartbreaking – but also pulsing with energy

A poignant, witty, original and lyrical coming of age story

Talented and ambitious

A powerful fictional condemnation of global inequality

From the opening chapter…the first-person narrative achieves a breathtaking vibrancy, ambition and pathos

Deserved all the publicity it got