A bittersweet work, tough and touching at the same time. Kurkov's style is spare and effective, drawing us with deceptive ease into a dense, complex world full of wonderful characters

Inventive, funny and worryingly prophetic

Kurkov is a fine satirist and a real, blackly comic find

Kurkov sports a double whammy: the fiercest of political intelligences married to a truly surrealistic mindset ... This is an ambitious, multi-layered political black comedy

Kurkov's eye for the absurdities of Ukrainian life is as sharp as ever

Sparkily funny and richly satirical

By turns darkly humorous, sometimes hilarious, particularly when any of his characters bump up against the state and touchingly endearing as his characters struggle through their tribulations

comical, charming... funny and distinct

Kurkov's touching and multi-layered satire sheds a surprisingly mellow light on life and lies before and after the iron curtain

A powerful story of lives marred by secrets, unfulfilled potential and the unjustness of the world... interwoven with another beautiful story of the dances people do to rise above it all

Clever, funny, confident and kind. Her gift for language is a pleasure and her character shines through

A sweeping meditation on race and identity... [Smith's] most ambitious work yet

A nuanced, richly rewarding tale

Lauren Kate really knows how to keep a reader engaged. A breathtaking read. 5/5

With its original plot and charming protagonist, there is much to like about Emily Barr's young-adult debut.

Her [Emily's] page-turning talents are put to good use in Flora's adventure, as the reader accompanies a brave teenager on a journey to discover who she really is.

Barr's light touch captures the innocence and integrity of Flora's voice.

Readers will surely have difficulty forgetting about Flora, her parents and their predicament.

An icily atmospheric story with a captivating hook.

A pacy page-turner that packs a significant emotional punch.

An absorbing, original and definitely memorable book.

A winning mix of a John Green/ Rainbow Rowell-style sharpness and sensitivity, but underlined with a darker edge, belying the author's previous experience as a thriller writer . . . a coming-of-age, finding-yourself-type novel which is, in turn, unsettling and uplifting.

This is yet another masterwork from the wonderful Israeli novelist whose work resonates with emotional intelligence, humanity and truth.

Bold, brash, angry and heartbreakingly tender, with flurries of exasperated humour, here is a novel to take one by surprise… A demanding and gloriously rewarding novel, in it Grossman confronts the business of being alive.

A sensitive and deeply emotional account of a past-prime comedian… This book is an immersive read for both the fans and haters of the stand-up comedy, but tread carefully if you’re not up for an emotional rollercoaster.

The perfect antidote to Trump.

This book is a compelling study of the relationship between artist and spectator, and how suffering feeds into art, and he’s made of it a bravura performance… Extraordinary.

A haunting, intense and Man Booker International prize-winning novel from a great writer.

Incredibly fast paced, and the dialogue comes at you like a machine gun… It is powerful in its own right.

Abrasive, unexpected and eventually heartbreaking, it is a masterclass in characterisation and structure, and it beat off some exceptionally strong competition to win the prize… A Horse Walks into a Bar is quite unlike any other Grossman book except in one important respect: it’s another masterpiece.

Excellent.

Pitch-perfect black comedy