Full of small-town secrets and whispers, Bill Clegg has woven a richly textured tale of loss and healing. This is a deeply optimistic book about the power of human sympathy to pull us from the wreckage of our fate.

The force, range, and scope of Bill Clegg’s Did You Ever Have a Family grab you with its opening line, and don’t let go until its final one. I can’t recall another novel that so effortlessly weds a nuanced, lyrical voice to an unflinching vision of just how badly things can go for people. I read it deep into the night, all the way through, telling myself it was getting late, I could finish the book in the morning. I finished it that night, however, slept a few hours, and then, in the morning, started reading it again.

Like the question it poses, Did You Ever Have a Family is brutally direct yet it’s got an enormous symbolic power. You hold in your hands a great book of kindness – every restrained, exquisite sentence comes loaded for bear. It’s been a lot of years since a novel has so moved me. Number Bill Clegg among that endangered species: major American writer.

This devastating novel is almost the definition of a literary pageturner and somehow it escapes being too bleak: a dark tale of family secrets shot through with glimmers of light and hope.

A masterfully well-made debut.

Clegg has produced a moving, clever novel that subtly dissects the relationships between mothers and their children, lover, neighbours and strangers.

A tale of prodigious tenderness and lyricism.

Beautifully paced… it approaches grief gently and, in the end, its gentleness is its triumph.

It’s the kind of book which will sneak up on you when you least expect it, and remain in your mind for weeks after reading it.

This is a remarkable novel, that rare kind where you both want to reach the end for answers but also to savour every page. I cannot recommend it enough.

Written with compelling simplicity.

Cleverly constructed, carefully written and deservedly longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize.

Clegg's story is frequently affecting.

At times a harrowing read, the slow and deliberate manner with which connections are revealed and questions answered is genuinely satisfying. By the time Clegg’s narrative strands converge, the glimpse that he grants of a brighter future feels earned.

An emotionally resonant debut.

A moving lament on guilt and grief, not to mention a gripping thriller.

A sad yet hopeful novel built from both suffering and kindness.

Poignant and haunting debut.

Clegg shows an impressive depth and range of voice as he tells a story of friendships, broken families, burgeoning love, and the aftermath of grief.

Deeply moving.

Clegg is committed to unravelling the complexities of human nature.

Through distinctive and instantly recognisable characters, this novel finds beauty in pain, grief and regret.

A true beauty of a novel.

Clegg writes with warmth and a deep understanding of grief.

Wonderful narrative of chance, grief, and the ways we feed on and nourish each other.

Fabulous.

Told its heart-breaking tale with tenderness and verve.

A work full of secrets, shame and scandal.

A story of what can be found when so much has been snatched away.

A meditation on enduring the unendurable… This is a wonderful and deeply moving novel.

A beautiful, heart-rending novel of quiet, understated tragedy… Sensitive and insightful, heart-breaking and hopeful… [A] tender, wise and hopeful novel.

Both novels offer precision of language and metaphor and scene even as what is being constructed feels messy, chaotic, sad, hopeless... Both orphaned and alone in the world, both so completely real, both telling a story that feels important and exciting to read. I feel lucky to have stumbled upon these books this year, and challenged by them to be better

This debut novel by acclaimed short story writer van den Berg tends to lean much closer to the realms of literary fiction with its complex psychology. . . Van den Berg's writing is curiously beautiful

a strange beauty in this apocalyptic tale

Charming, magical, mysterious, enthralling

Lushly imagined, extremely charming and very, very readable

The Night Circus made me happy. Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for. This is a marvelous book

The Night Circus pulls you into a world as dark as it is dazzling, fully-realized but still something out of a dream. You will not want to leave it

Pure pleasure... Erin Morgenstern is a gifted, classic storyteller, a tale-teller, a spinner of the charmed and mesmerizing - I had many other things I was supposed to be doing, but the book kept drawing me back in and I tore through it. You can be certain this riveting debut will create a group of rêveurs all its own

This 19th-Century Anglo-American costume drama about two star-crossed lovers in a fantastical travelling circus is as dreamlike and magical as its setting

I'm not often lost for words, but I'm struggling to find the words to describe just how good this book is and how it made me feel, so I'll just say this: if you are only able to read one book for the rest of your life, make sure it is The Night Circus. You won't regret it

This must be one of the most beautiful novels of the year. Its die-cut cover, black-edged pages and intricate endpapers attest to the publisher's hopes that Erin Morgenstern's magically minded debut will secure the vast audience left bereft by the conclusion of the Harry Potter chronicles

The narrative is deft and satisfying, and the author's talent is intriguing

Enchanting, and affecting... I was compelled by the world itself - by its saturated colours and textures, its unexpected smells and tastes. It is a surprisingly rare thing in fiction - a strikingly beautiful world, in spite of its darkness

Morgenstern's writing, when it comes to magical creations, is delectable, addictive stuff...[it] leaves a tang of smoky caramel in the air as it ends, and an undeniable urge to go to the circus

A beguiling, gripping read... Morgenstern has crafted a thrilling and transporting tale

Extraordinary, atmospheric, a mind-spinning story

This week's hot read...I loved this book and didn't want it to end... Totally absorbing and beautifully descriptive, it created a whole world I couldn't help but get lost in, especially the slow-burning love story between the two main characters, who are both sorcerers

Enter the magical world of a mysterious travelling circus

The new One Day... Erin Morgenstern is the talk of the literary world and we hear The Night Circus will be the next big thing. Set in a mysterious, monochrome circus the book centres on two young magicians who begin to fall in love

Fantasy blends seamlessly with reality and I ended up having to use words like this: enchanting

Erin Morgenstern's astonishingly vivid imagination made the unbelievable believable...in other words I fell for it all... There is illusion and delusion, shape-shifting, manipulation and deceit, misdirection and more often than not all is definitely not what it seems as the story unfolds, and if you are as unforgiving as I am of entire books written in the present tense, in this case, as you read you will see why it is necessary. The present tense embraces shifting time whether past or future, it is actually always the present ..see I can hardly make sense of it myself, you need to read it to see how well it works. And yes, I was enchanted, and I did run away with the circus as young Bailey does, and as I closed the book of course I came back to reality gently wondering whether I was supposed to be thinking, how long before Bailey meets Mr Barnum

An enchanting tale of forbidden love, set against the spectacular backdrop of the circus

A recommendation by Audrey Niffenegger...should ensure this amazing debut novel gets the attention it deserves

Fantasy lovers, here comes Harry Potter for grown-ups... The story is already en-route to Hollywoood so snap up the original tale first

It is rich, evocative, compelling, enchanting, whimsical, breath-taking, playful, imaginative, marvellous, and quite simply beautiful in every single way. I love it

Rich in Shakespearean allusion, this is McEwan on dazzling form.

Told from a perspective unlike any other, Nutshell is a classic tale of murder and deceit from one of the world’s master storytellers.

Ian McEwan’s brilliance as a stylist and surprise plotter finds a fitting subject in Nutshell…, which is Hamlet as told from inside the womb. Up there with his best.

A gripping tale is told with breathtaking skill, turbocharged with rage against the madness and despair of our modern world.

Nutshell is one of those books you sit down to read and don’t get up until you’ve finished. It is brilliantly executed and full of surprises; original, clever and witty. Simply a must-read

A book I couldn’t put down… brilliantly clever