Too often the best European literature doesn't reach this island; here we have a little consolation

An absorbing tale... a gripping story that gallops along with un-put-downable speed

Despite an awkward start, it makes an uncomplicated, easily digestible, cheering read: so it's perhaps unsurprising that it became the best-selling French novel of 2008, moving over half a million copies and being translated into 32 languages

It is a confident author who works with a large cast of characters, and in many instances - notably the children - Gavalda nails it

Gavalda's touching writing makes what could have been a melancholy text into a beautifully insightful novel.

Out of a narrative shadowed by terror, gleam sharp perceptions, brilliant intense images and sardonic wit

Margaret Atwood is a wry and perceptive observer of society as well as an original storyteller

The images of brilliant emptiness are one of the most striking aspects of this novel about totalitarian blindness...the effect is chilling

Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood’s devastating irony, wit and astute perception

It's hard to believe it is 25 years since it was first published, but its freshness, its anger and its disciplined, taut prose have grown more admirable in the intervening years... Atwood's novel was an ingenious enterprise that showed, with out hysteria, the real dangers to women of closing their eyes to patriarchal

One of Atwood’s finest pieces of work serves as a great reminder of what humanity is capable of.

It's mesmerising, compelling and considered one of her best.

Fiercely political and bleak, yet witting and wise...this novel seems ever more vital in the present day

In this alternative history, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated en route to his inauguration. His death leads legislators to come together with one last proposal to keep the Union intact. It works, and today the status of slavery is decided state by state. In the Hard Four states, “peebs” (Persons Bound to Labor) are legally enchained, working 12 hours on and eight off. If a peeb escapes, the federal government is enjoined to find and return him to his owners. Victor works undercover for the U.S. Marshals, tracking down other black men. Now he’s hunting a peeb named Jackdaw. Something’s wrong, though, and he can’t figure out what. Fast paced and filled with menace, the story has an ambience that makes it special. In Victor’s supposedly “free” world, everywhere there are traps for people of color—free doesn’t mean equal and definitely doesn’t mean safe. What’s startling is that Victor’s experiences could well happen in the contemporary world. VERDICT Explosive, well plotted, and impossible to put down, this alt-hist by the Edgar Award–winning author of the “Last Policeman” trilogy will attract readers of all genres.

Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man meets Blade Runner in this outstanding alternate history thriller.

The world of Underground Airlines is realised in incredible details, fascinating to read even when it’s truly uncomfortable … It’s frightening how plausible and believable Ben H. Winters’ alternate reality America really is.

A terrific premise … the haunting scenes of slavery in the Hard Four will stay with you.

Underground Airlines is a powerful work … a brave, controversial thriller.

A great premise … but slavery scenes will haunt you.

An almost painfully timely novel.

Winters does an amazing job of painting a world that never was but, in his hands, is frighteningly plausible … Winters has crafted a thrilling, tightly plotted and nourish thriller.

If you’re looking for a brilliant, smart, chilling page turner for what’s left of the summer, I can recommend Ben H. Winters.

Winters does an amazing job of painting a world that next we was, but in his hands, are frighteningly plausible … Winters could not have written a more timely novel.

Groundbreaking.

A really intriguing premise.

On the surface, Underground Airlines is a well-crafted thriller, suspenseful and with fascinating characters. But not far below the surface is a philosophical debate about how one small change of events in history can put the world on a different path.

‘Intriguing’

There is more than one idiot in this delightful and slyly funny coming-of-age novel... Will strike a chord for any former fresher who felt the same way. (That would be all of us.)

Batuman, in seemingly writing a novel about nothing, has produced an incredibly complex, accurate and funny novel.

I never want to finish it, so I’m reading it very slowly.

Every page is thicketed with jokes, riffs, theories of language. It’s a portrait of an intellectual and sentimental education that offers almost unseemly pleasure.

Elif Batuman is a real writer, and should be allowed to write whatever the hell she likes.

Selin’s deadpan narration is often very funny indeed

This is a capacious book that creates an alternative world

At once clever and clueless, Batuman’s heroine shows us with just how messy it can be to forge a self

One of the best novels I read all summer... a painstakingly accurate depiction of the balancing act that is student-life. As clever as it is funny, Batuman's debut novel allows us to laugh at our own stupidity, and celebrate our own cluelessness.

The Idiot... manages the trick of being laugh-out-loud funny while not actually being a comedy. It just observers life, in all its truth and is hilarious for page after page.

I finally read The Idiot by Elif Batuman and everyone is correct, she is clearly a genius