Ambitious

'The New York of City of Strangers is a lonely, violent place, shadowed by failure and the sins of the past, yet this is no simple neo-noir. There's depth and extension to the world Ian MacKenzie creates for his hero, and brilliant writing on every page. It's hard to believe this is a debut - and that much more exciting

A novel as grim as it is extraordinary...MacKenzie sets up a New York rampant with alienation and misunderstanding, and his visceral narrative,powered by taut prose and braced with sturdy philosophical and psychological underpinnings, is a winner

Excellent... Relentless... Powerful

A glum gem

A triumph

Kennedy really can tell a story... the twists in the plot are perfectly timed to keep the pages turning

This is a book that demands attention, gripping from the first pages to the closing chapters

This is the kind of writing that isn't supposed to be written anymore - a stunning conflation of individual destiny with the broad sweeps of history... Let the hyperbole fall - this is the novel against which the rest of the year's output demands to be judged

Provocative

It takes courage to write a novel about two of Britain's best-know poets - John Clare and Alfred Lord Tennyson - and their encounter in an Epping Forest asylum. It takes skill to turn that into an engrossing, beautiful novel. Foulds has shown both

Rich in its understanding and representation of the mad, the sane, and that large overlapping category in between

Every character, every narrative strand is stunningly written, making it an engrossing and unusual historical novel

The world he evokes is conjured up with remarkable intensity and economy of means

The novel is most notable for its savage descriptions of rural life

Foulds does a marvellous job of evoking the atmosphere of the forest. His prose has none of the awkwardness one often encounters when real-life characters are brought into play

With its unflinching look at treatments of madness, and its authentic period feel, this is an appropriately disturbing, while also beautifully written, story of human endeavour - and human failure.

Chosen in The New Yorker Books of the year 2010: 'An intricate homage to two nineteenth-century poets'.

Blake Morrison's examination of the dark heart of male rivalry makes foe a gripping read

Pacy and gripping...wonderfully atmospheric

Morrison's compelling study of male competitiveness offers a discomforting account of the amoral excuses and self-deception of the compulsive gambler: "I don't have a problem. I could stop tomorrow"; "gambling is the basis of our whole economy". You reckon you could put it down at any point - though you'd be kidding yourself

The Bank Holiday weekend from hell is the subject of Blake Morrison's entertaining new novel - a dark little tale about middle-class rivalry and midsummer meltdown. With an ear attuned to metropolitan pretension - modern parenting skills are sent up with gusto - Morrison succeeds in weaving a murderous melodrama that is grounded in the most recognizable of human impulses and desires

A tense chamber piece about a twisted friendship...the author's skilful choreography of unsympathetic characters and a menacing tone make for a sharply intelligent novel that is both unnerving and enjoyable

The Last Weekend isn't really a thriller though its well-paced, tight and gripping narrative has you reaching for the same adjectives that you would use to describe one

For those holidaying with old friends…the book tells the chilling story ofa rivalrousfriendship…leaving Alex Clark to conclude that Morrison “keeps the reader constantly intrigued