Impressive... The epic story of Feliu Delargo, an underprivileged child prodigy whose musical ability brings him into contact with world leaders, first-class artists and a life filled with loss and triumph... For sheer scope and ambition, this is a tough debut to beat.

The book is almost dizzyingly episodic, but bound together by Feliu's lifelong struggle with the question of the proper relationship between music and politics, a subject Romano-Lax handles with finesse. ... A deft, inventive debut.

This riveting historical page-turner moves inexorably toward a heartrending crescendo.

An impressive and richly atmospheric debut.

Becky Sharp may be one of literature's great schemers, but she's also one of its most memorable and entertaining. More rounded than almost all the simpering Victorian dolls who followed, she alone is worth the read

Becky Sharp is one of the best bad women in literature ...she is deliciously bad in an era when women were not meant to be

Still one of the bitchiest, cattiest, funniest and most entertaining novels ever written

Vastly entertaining...Will good win out over evil? In Durham's morally ambiguous world, the uncertainty is part of the thrill

Sprawling and vividly imagined fantasy...Durham has created a richly detailed alternate reality leavened with a dollop of magic and populated by complicated personalities grappling with issues of freedom and oppression.

Chikwava gives his anti-hero an unforgettable voice; a fine balance between tragedy and comedy

Chikwava's unreliable narrator is animated with an unforgettable voice in this poetic and tragicomic tale

Hilarious and terrifying

It's a wry delight

This fantastically energetic debut offers a dark, funny vision of the underbelly of London populated by illegal immigrants...Harare North's politics are subversive and cynical and Brian Chikwava's sharp style draws attention to the meanings not just behind the euphemisms that cloak human tragedy under Mugabe's regime but the hypocrisies found in England's capital

Chikwava has a distinctive style, a complex mix of grit and humour with a voice that is persuasive enough to unsettle the reader and force them to uncomfortably inhabit 'the other' and (somewhat guiltily) reassess certain assumptions

The narrator is an astute observer of London immigrant life. Chickwava can be funny as well, finding humour in the worst situations

The comedy ranges from wry to very earthy, while the strikingly poetic use of African-derived imagery gives the novel much more than just a 'generic immigrant' feel... Harare North was a joy to read and comes highly recommenced for all in search of original voices in modern fiction

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

The greatest comic writer ever

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

Sublime comic genius

Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in

He exhausts superlatives

The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare