A work of unusual intelligence and imagination...[a sort of] fantasia on what Ovid's life in exile might have been and, as time went by, became, as the quintessentially civilized man of letters was forced to come to terms with a harsh, pre-rational, thoroughly alien world

Elegant and resonant narrative...an exhilarating use of language

Haunting

David Malouf, a spare and delicate writer, presents here the first-person story of the Roman poet Ovid's exile in the distant, frosty wastes...hypnotic in its gripping accumulation of detail, its gradual unwrapping of human reality amid what at first seems a barbarian and unknowable environment. At the centre of this meticulously well-told tale is Ovid's encounter with a wild boy, brought up among the deer in the snow

Superb.

A vivid description of the 1960s New York music scene, it has a wonderfully noirish feel – and scoops our prize for best cover design.

Martell uses his writing skills to immerse you in the sights, sounds and culture of a pivotal moment in music history. While expertly exploring the tragic true story of arguably the greatest jazz pianist of all time, Martell has put himself on the map as one of the most promising writers in the UK to date.

Written with real soul.

For readers who revel in the beauty of great writing, there is much here to enjoy.

[A] highly accomplished account of a notoriously elusive topic, the life of music.

Unique and original…Beautifully written.

There is no doubting the talent, I might even say brilliance, of the author, Jack Wolf … I simply cannot imagine whence came the idea for such a beautifully bizarre story … The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones is a deeply original and startling read

the most gruesome and delicious title I have read in a tremendously long time. The perfect blend of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Sweeney Todd and Frankenstein

At the end of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, you’ll be left with a lot of questions about both the story you’ve just read and its morals. But if you’re like me, you’ll also be left with a profound desire to dive back in and do the whole thing again. It’s a rich concept, dark, twisty and fabulously well executed.

Tristan bears a resemblance to Patrick Suskind's Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, but he is far more complicated and captivating as the protagonist. There's an earnestness that lies beneath his brutish nature, which surfaces unexpectedly and lures the reader into the murky depths of his mental anguish. Wolf's fearless debut confronts opposing forces such as good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, and sanity and madness head-on. The narrative is thick with expectation and keeps the reader on tenterhooks throughout. This clever roller-coaster ride will challenge your reasoning, shake your senses and keep you awake at night

I enjoyed the twist on the traditional monster story, the clash of science and fairytales and how it was still possible for the two to merge and exist together during this time. Wolf is a strong writer and I’m definitely looking forward to his next book

A dark and violent debut that shows the depth of Wolf’s imagination and skill at weaving a tale

[Tristan Hart’s] obsession is the nature of pain, and preventing it during medical procedures. His equally strong and far more unpredictable obsession is the nature of pain, and causing it

Tristan's sadistic flights of fancy make for consciously creepy reading but this knowingly warped tale about a journey into a disturbed psyche offers more than gratuitous horror. Instead, Wolf's sure hand with Hart's arcane voice and intelligent control of material including medical history and strange folklore results in a thrilling tale of transgression

It’s absolutely terrific ... it twists and it turns and is not what you think it’s going to be. It keeps changing and transforming and it’s a wonderful wonderful novel

Troubling Gothic vibes can be found in The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, which relays its schlocky tale of a lunatic 18th-century doctor obsessed with pain in some arrestingly well-turned period cadences

Thrilling.

An engrossing literary experiment that still contains enough hard facts to function as a terrific yarn.

Thrilling and engaging...Binet brilliantly builds the tension in the lead up to the assassination attempt, likewise the nerve-shredding aftermath of the incident.... Being so experimental yet so compelling as a writer is a real high-wire act, one only precious few authors have managed. Binet does it dazzlingly here, and I'm excited about what he's going to write next

Mesmeric stuff; history brought to chilling, potent life

A literary tour de force

Binet’s debut is a masterpiece of historical fiction… gripping read

A nail-biting novel, a thorough work of history and, most successfully of all, an exercise in form: a story about the writing of a true story

Compelling

Binet's approach may be new, but his story-telling instincts are nicely old fashioned. Translator Sam Wood does justice to the lucid prose

Is it a novel about the Nazis? Or is it a memoir about a historian trying to write about the Nazis? Somehow, it’s both – and it’s brilliant

A triumph

A must-read for people who have a real interest in the Third Reich … improbably entertaining and electrifyingly modern, a moving work

With its slightly skewed perspective and the relative freshness of its approach, HHhH compels us once again to consider that this, surely, was humanity's lowest point: a war waged, not against those who thwarted Germany's territorial ambitions, but against all that was good and decent in the human soul. In so doing, it confounds those who would decry post-modernism as wilfully obscure, relativistic and lacking in conviction

French newcomer Laurent Binet hits the ground running in the engrossing novel within a novel

A breezily charming novel, with a thrilling story that also happens to be true, by a gifted young author amusingly anguished over the question of how to tell it … In principle there's nothing not to like about Laurent Binet's acclaimed debut, and HHhH is certainly a thoroughly captivating performance

This book fully justifies the lavish praise adorning its author

Dazzling... It's stunningly brilliant

Stunning

Binet provides both context and impressive detail on the eventual assassination of Heydrich