They make me cry with laughter ... I think he's one of the great geniuses

Tom Sharpe is in top form ... outrageously funny ... Left-wing academics, right-wing capitalists, true-blue country gentry, workers, peasants, police and lawyers - all take custard pies full in the face in this boisterous knockabout farce

A novelist who has broken out of the pack, established a wholly distinctive style ... such a keen eye for the ridiculous and marvellous ability to puncture it

An immense gift for social satire ... the action is unflagging

There’s almost no one funnier

He has not written a better or more skilful farce

Britain's leading practitioner of black humour

The year's most impressive debut

Like Donna Tartt’s "The Secret History" or a good film noir . . . Jane’s low-key narration has just the right tone to keep readers hooked

The strength of 'The Lake of Dead Languages' is a silken prose that lures the reader into Goodman’s . . . story of murder, suicide . . . revenge, and madness

Part suspense, part coming-of-age, and all-enthralling . . . A book that needs the roar of a fire to ward off its psychic chill