Fleshes out wildly and deliciously the Rabelaisian goings-on of London's finest

Domino sends you spinning into [an] utterly convincing world

As unnerving as a magician's cupboard

Evokes engrossingly and brilliantly the sights, smells, language and manners of late eighteenth-century London

A fascinating and resplendent debut

As the conversation blossoms, the pair wander blissfully off topic into wider philosophical speculation about the nature of culture, for instance or humanity's curious relationship with past, present and future. And along the way there are plenty of pleasant diversions and anecdotes, taking in such diverse subject matter as Italian cinema forgotten French baroque poets, and the place of philosophy in contemporary European education systems. All this, naturally, informed by their love of books

They're great thinkers and talkers, with a lifetime of book-loving behind them, the pair digress into fascinating areas, discussing how new media give rise to their own languages, how we came to have the canon of great literature we do now and the effect that ephemerality, memory, religion and even fakery have had on the world of books

A lively exchange of views… it’s fun to eavesdrop on their conversation

Playful and learned

This is the perfect holiday read but would be just as entertainiing on the commute to work as accompanying you pool side

Second wives form a club to bitch about their husbands and in-laws in this compelling read

A really enjoyable, if rather sad, read, full of historical and human interest

Felix Quinn, the narrator of the book...explains it beautifully - and this is a very good novel... Feeling unsafe makes him feel alive. And loss, of course, is the wellspring of good storytelling

The Act of Love is an ambitious and at times extremely uncomfortable novel

It is an almost frighteningly brilliant achievement. Why did the Booker judges not recognise it?

This is a very good novel

Jacobson's 10th novel is a moving, thought-provoking and darkly witty story of desire and love