A startling novel. I have rarely read a piece of writing so poetic

He is an important storyteller because he is sensitive and he has an incredible ear, which, in his fiction, is allied to great ingenuity

I learnt more about the Spanish Civil War from The Carpenter's Pencil...than from any history book I've read

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