Hitomi Kanehara is one of international fiction's most startling new voices... her anatomisation of a disturbed mind renders every description unique... this autofiction is the most elegant postmodern escape act by a contemporary novelist yet

Kanehara is an instant star

Kanehara is the real thing. Her prose is lean, and her characterisation convincing

Kanehara is a new voice who owes nothing to anyone and reinvents the novel afresh

Hitomi Kanehara has a confidence in her writing that belies her years...Autofiction is a harsh but touching tale, and it is utterly impossible to put down - there's no escaping the fact that, even in translation, Kanehara's gritty and honest prose will get under your skin

No one has bettered Edith Wharton on the cash-sex nexus of the respectable, as well as the clashes of propriety and fashion. The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth are probably the best novels by this knowing, compassionate writer

Wharton evocatively records the high society of New York's gilded age

Wharton didn't simply reproduce the glossy surfaces of high society but probed the hypocrisy, corruption, cynicism and coldheartedness that lay just underneath

The characterisation is superb, Moggach has brilliantly resurrected a world of genteel penury and intense, furtive sex, and the book exudes quiet excellence

[A] smartly-written novel...the writing remains fresh and persuasive

Neill bucks the chick-lit trend with prose that's clever and endearing, and frazzled parents will love the way she nails the sticky, hair-pulling mania of domestic life

A deftly executed domestic comedy

Hilarious . . . Plays with the chaos and comedy of 30-something metropolitan maternity and brings it to an unexpectedly moving conclusion