This brilliant work fizzes with bleak humour and a crackpot energy... a powerfully affecting novel of married life and cultural incompatability... Parks is an exceptionally acute observer of modern life

Tim Parks masterly new novel is... intellectually sophisticated, formally ambitious, and belongs to a cosmopolitan European tradition. But it is one that pays honour to the heart as well as to the mind

Complex but captivating and exactly observed... A book to digest slowly and savour

A wilful, hypnotic novel... Destiny gleams with insights into the trade-off between the personal and the political... a stylish, ambitious novel of a life in freefall

He can write, at will, like a modern Henry James, proceeding with composure through the labyrinth... Indeed, this is a novel that seems to exist on the brink, on the edge of insanity

The book is beautiful and rich in prose, bold and deeply moving. The story is brilliantly narrated. It has characters that you will remember for days to come. A highly recommended book which you must pick up today, if you haven't already! This book has to be at the top of your to read list!

What makes Priya Basil's second novel so interesting is the complexity of the scenario it presents. One can imagine this kind of story being treated rather simplistically (as, for example, a tale of the heroic lovers striving to overcome all the obstacles life places in their way), but Basil doesn't do that - all her characters face difficult questions, and there are no easy answers... Adding a further layer to the novel is the way that events in its wider world interact with and reflect the personal stories of the protagonists... In all this, I haven't mentioned that Basil's novel is a good read purely in terms of its plot, as she manages several times to wrong-foot the reader over what will happen (or has happened). Yet there's so much more here besides, and it all makes The Obscure Logic of the Heart very satisfying to read.

What really sets this book apart from others is the beautiful prose used by the author. The descriptions that she uses are breathtaking and you really feel as though you are there with the characters, seeing everything that they are able to see... the ending was so powerful that it will remain with you long after you have finished

Around a century ago, Rudyard Kipling laid the foundations of modern children's literature with works such as The Jungle Book, Just So Stories and Puck of Pook's Hill. Far from the fusty Victorian conventions of the time, they were wild, magnificent stories that felt as though they'd always existed, stories people might have told each other in the caves

A must read

Charming and quirky

Definitely one to watch

Hudson’s ear for language…raises this debut novel well above the average

Janie’s irrepressible, childish glee and the sly humour into which it evolves give the novel a wry self-awareness that is both refreshing and endearing

A gripping, often hilarious tale of growing up in the slums of Aberdeen. Hard to put down owing to the power of the narrative, its DNA is part Roddy Doyle/part Irvine Welsh

A sumptuous novel. Read it for the sentences and smarts, and for the copious sexy parts

Everything I want from a love story: sexy, convincing, baffling, funny, sad and unforgettable

Banville's exquisitely written novel unravels the deceptions of memory with wit and pathos