Beautifully crafted and spellbinding

A bravura rendering of historical detail... Japin's greatest accomplishment is the narrator's tone in which the voice of an embittered old man merges with that of a perceptive but scared and betrayed child

An elegant and ultimately moving fictional reworking of another troubling chapter of Europeans in Africa and Africans in Europe

Mesmerising... Like Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, Japin's ventriloquism is virtually flawless

A deeply humane book about a spectacularly exotic subject

'Rupert Morgan's irrepressible wit sees humour wherever he looks. The plot unfolds like a firework display, one explosion after another, each one more outrageous than the one before...The pace of the performance builds up into a grand finale that leaves you gasping and wide-eyed. This is a first novel by someone who has perfected his craft. The interweavings of plot and character are skilfully executed. But above all it is so good to be made to laugh - really laugh. This is one of those books, like Louis de Berniere's, which will have your friends and family furiously demanding to see what you are reading that makes you so roar with laughter'

'Amusing and inventive'

'A really brilliant first novel, he is obviously a major talent'

'The match of the madder moments of John Irving or Tom Sharpe...this is a promisingly entertaining "lite" read'

'At its best when taking pot-shots at a wide variety of modern ills - fast food, tabloid media, downsizing, soap-opera politics...One of Morgan's nicer inventions is a computer program that boils down complex texts to their essentials. Its treatment of the Old Testament renders it down to: "Because I say so, that's why"'

'Suspenseful, atmospheric and highly intelligent, Jody Shields focuses a brilliant light on the murky world of imperial Vienna'