BBC Audio's team gives these releases a hallmark of quality

Jane Feaver's debut novel is an emotionally accurate portrayal... She has nailed the relationships between the children precisely and with humour

This is a first novel of extraordinary intelligence and charm ... It's a bleak enough narrative, but also extremely funny

An intimate portrait of a bohemian family in the sticks - great stuff

This is a memorable debut - and a confident book...There are no easy laughs, no sentimentality. Feaver is witty and inventive. Above all, she is sufficiently daring to allow truth and memory freedom to shape scenes that convince. The choreography is seamless, each character lives off the page and the narrative is an inevitable as it is unpredictable

As a portrait of a time and a place, it's pitch-perfect... Most memorable is Feaver's language - burnished and sturdily poetic, with a saving comic streak

Feaver writes almost entirely without cliché ... brilliantly conveying the multiplicity of viewpoints within a family as well as the locked-in, awkward consciousness of her characters

This is an excellent debut. Feaver has the fluency of a fast writer, her images are original and startling...you're in for a stimulating and bumpy ride. We shall see more of her

Built around the intertwining and often similar lives of its characters, According To Ruth offers a delicate and innocent tale of childhood as well as a moving account of failed expectations and grief

A delightful, heartwarming exploration of the twists and turns of true friendship, The Fifth Letter was simply delicious from the very first page to the last. Relatable characters, a fast-moving plot and just the right amount of mystery. I was hooked!

A brilliant and compelling novel where a twenty-year-old friendship is tested by the secrets they have been keeping. The plot is fascinating and I found the characters likeable and irritating at the same time. Playing on the anonymity of the letters, the author creates suspense and anticipation as truths - and lies - are spilled page after page

This is one of those books you have to make sure you've got nothing scheduled when you start reading. Because once you start, you're not going to want to stop. Page turner indeed. Wow. And some scenes that made me cry

With secrets and intrigue, this is a compulsive read

Entertaining

A darkly humorous story about friendship

Intrigue, hatred and accusations - phew, it kept me guessing to the end

The premise and its execution will grab readers and refuse to let go. Readers may pick this one up to see how Moriarty's writing compares to her sister Liane's wildly popular novels, but they'll race to the end as a credit to Nicola's fine sense of pacing and suspense. An author to watch.

Entertaining and easy to read

Lasdun is a renowned writer.

Expertly playing the noir card, Lasdun dissects the mercurial relationships among a wealthy financier, his photographer wife and an aimless cousin during a long hot summer in upstate New York. There are plenty of lies and betrayals in this stylish thriller, but it’s the slow burn of obsession that makes it sing.

The Man Booker-nominated author's critically praised new novel is a Trump Age thriller: A rich banker and his cousin, an unemployed chef, both covet the banker's wife, who is having an affair with a fourth person. Things end badly.

This is a one-sitting read, a whitewater ride to hell in which Lasdun hurls headlong into the psyche of his stalker, in this instance a thirty-something former chef called Matthew… In fearlessly observing sentences, Lasdun – who has an architectural imagination – unlocks room after room of Matthew’s psyche… Brilliant.

We all wish we could erase, obscure, or even simply accept the past. Perhaps the message of The Fall Guy is that, however extreme our mistakes, we will still regard them as aberrations, bizarre swerves away from our true selves, rather than what they really are: the purest expressions of our prejudices, fears and desires.

Superbly engaging and intelligent psychological thriller… A compulsively readable tale of money, power and betrayal.

A creepy little satire.

A riveting psychological thriller.

The story becomes very intense as Lasdun masterfully turns the screw.

[A] densely written, masterfully told tale.

A new, short, highly concentrated novel…meditating in brief paragraphs on the art and compromise with power over 50 years in the life of the composer Shostakovich.

Moving and often genuinely tense.

A brilliant reflection of one man’s consciousness, amid the fear and terror of authoritarian rule. Completely gripping and informative and entertaining, it is a classic Barnes concoction.

Pulsing with riffs on love, music and honesty both personal and artistic, it depicts a man who knows he’s a coward, even if his scores are courageous… Barnes also captures the farcical side of life in Soviet Russia.

A tour de force by a master novelist at the top of his game.

Barnes’s prose is thoughtful and elegant.

A great novel.

Barnes pulls together all the strands of an artlessly diffuse and meticulously imagined portrait of life under tyranny. It is masterfully done.

A distinctive and, as always with Barnes, highly readable marriage of suave execution and chilly, grown-up subject matter.

With its three-act structure, dramatic tension, lyrical passages and recurring motifs, the novel has an operatic quality. Offering an intimate portrait of the artist and an overview of Russia’s troubled past, it’s a compelling read.

You’ll love this.

The Noise of Time is a brilliant impersonation, both as a novel and as a portrayal of the “real” historical Shostakovich.

A gripping story, a fascinating portrait of a period of history, and a brilliantly in-depth character study… Beautifully written… Philosophically and intellectually enriching.

A thoughtful, moving read about integrity, compromise and courage.

Barnes has some striking setpieces in this probing, intellectually robust novel.

The fear, danger and paranoia felt in those times rise memorably from the pages.

Barnes stands out, so vivid are his images and so poignant his insights. His works stand among the classics of the postmodern era, and for good reason.

A marvellous meditation on the Cold War era and particularly the battles of conscience that besiege a man living under tyranny.

The tone is intimate and aphoristic, the paragraphs succinct.

A fascinating account of the life of Dimitri Shostakovich… Perceptive, symbolic… The Noise of Time is an essential read, and not only for musicians.

A finely-tuned masterpiece... Barnes' prose is supreme.

An intimate portrait of a public intellectual living in a totalitarian atmosphere… Immersive… The Noise of Time presents a compelling story in engaging and original prose.

Kaleidoscopic portrait… Barnes deftly constructs a life history... A masterfully told story of survival. *****

Beautifully composed.

Without a doubt, Barnes has succeeded the high expectations of the people who waited with bated breath for the release of The Noise of Time. In a work that feels both original and authentic, he encourages us to consider the importance of art, in whatever form, and the influence it can have on us all.

Barnes at his best...a poignant fictional recreation of the artistic agonies of the composer Shostakovich.

A very sensitive account of how art can be in conflict with naked political power.

A book I’d like to tuck myself away for a day to read. It’s short in length but by all accounts big on ideas and power.

His Dmitri Shostakovich is completely believable.

[A] brilliant study of the relationship between art and an oppressive regime… A compelling depiction of the country’s history and a richly imagined close-up of the artist.

A poignant and thoughtful portrait of the persecuted artist.

[It is] elegant.

Another Brilliant reinvention by Barnes.

My favourite book of this year is The Noise of Time.

His best for ages. It is gripping, outward-looking, generous with plot and atmosphere and far beyond the powers of McEwan, Amis, Ishiguro, Rushidie et al…. This book grabbed me by the nuts like nothing of his since Starting at the Sun.

[A] haunting novel on the agonies of Shostakovitch under Stalin and his successors… I recommended it to a friend who for years was one of the great reviewers at the Washington Post. His reply: “It’s an extraordinary book. It’s a book that makes me wish I were reviewing again.”

A mini-masterpiece.

An elegant portrait of Shostakovitch.

Written with Barnes’ characteristic low-key elegance, the book becomes a meditation on artistic integrity and its limits in a brutal regime

An impressive narrative of personal integrity.

As a portrait of the composer and his time this book is a complete success… The Noise of Time is also convincing in the details… A book in which a certain grim humour is never too far away.

[A] gem of a novel.

A compelling read that combines sharp insights, lyrical passages and dramatic tension.

Black humour and retrospective anguish prevail in Julian Barnes’s latest novel.

A beautifully told story, this is subtle and powerful.

This small novel is an elegant and unflinching account of a life lived under extreme pressure, during Stalin’s Great Terror. Julian Barnes fleshes out the life of the composer Shostakovich whose life is under threat. A powerful story, well-crafted and beautifully written about the humanity and torments of a creative soul… An informative, thought provoking read.

An immense emotional and intellectual punch.