Schierhout imposes an austere intelligence and sense of regret on this remarkable narrative. If any novel published this year deserves a truckload of honours, it is this one. No reader could be prepared for the complex tale that unfolds. It is a beautiful book, as bleak as love and as heartbreaking

Written with an elliptical elegance reminiscent of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient this is a strong debut about the grip of memory and the power of one life to impose itself upon another

Her novel is not unlike the diamonds of which she writes: hard, glinting and multifaceted, suggestive of intense compression and unfathomable depths

Praise for Elizabeth Noble

Noble is the mistress of the tearjerking message of love

Incredibly thought-provoking and poignant

Impossible to finish without tears streaming down your face

Witty, affectionate and unashamedly tear-jerking

Honest and beautifully written

Witty, pacy and immediately engaging

Enchantingly clever

So fluid, the pages turn themselves

Irresistible comfort read

It would be a hard heart indeed that remained unmoved . . . the tender feelings that Noble engenders in her readers are to be cherished

Tissues are essential. You'll ricochet between delicately watering eyes at the romance of it all and howling sobs at the unbearable tenderness

An ambitious conflation of fact and fiction

Samantha Hunt's fantasy comes closer than any biography to solving the riddle of Tesla's commercial and personal failings ... The Invention of Everything Else is perfect for nights spent in the wrong hotel, once your travel plans have, as usual, gone subtly awry

a fascinating blend of fact, fiction, history and dare I say, science fiction surrounding the weird and wonderful life of Nikola Tesla the acknowledged father of radio and AC electricity.

her portrait of Tesla buzzes with vitality

This unusual novel skilfully interweaves the story of the eccentric inventor of radio and AC electricity with that of Louisa ... a compelling novel.

A sophisticated pastiche of science fiction, fantasy, melodrama, and historical anecdote....It all adds up to a precocious math of human marvel