There is no novelist writing today who catches the feeling of the moment more surely than Amos Oz

The book eavesdrops on several days in the life of this Jewish Walter Mitty, a Dostoevskian holy fool minus the faith, with the penchant for casuistic sophistry of Bellow's Herzog

This might turn out to be the first entry into Israel's "post-war" literary canon

A warm, enhancing experience

A thinking woman's Billy Liar

An outstanding work... a hilarious and moving portrait

Dalila is written with such immense empathy.

Donald is a powerful literary writer, an author with real empathy and an unflinching eye.

An achingly brutal depiction of how society treats asylum seekers – a tale that is especially relevant in today’s world.

Dalila does for the Home Office what I, Daniel Blake did for the Department of Work and Pensions... stands to shine a light on the side of the migration story that never makes the news.

It had me laughing one moment then in tears the next… A well-told story of what life throws at us and how we adapted to tell our story, our ubuntu.

Dalila is one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve read in a while. Succinct yet beautifully descriptive, it would be impossible for any reader to come away from it without a renewed or newfound sympathy for genuine asylum seekers. This is an absorbing, heartbreaking novel.

Utterly compelling. Dalila, a multi-layered story of more than one displaced life, is as up-close, resonant and right-now as it gets.

Dalila is a riveting examination of one of today's most urgent issues. Telling the story of a young and desperate Kenyan asylum-seeker, Jason Donald writes with insight (and considerable inside knowledge) about the particular purgatory through which she and so many like her have to pass. All the more powerful for not being a mere polemic, Dalila is grippingly authentic, transparently truthful and exceptionally moving.

A compelling novel of a young woman’s struggle to find safety in a hostile world, Dalila examines some of the most important issues of our age. Powerful, compassionate and deeply human.

The character of Dalila, so courageous and dignified, so unassuming and yet so resilient, lives with the reader long after the book has been put down.

An astonishingly accomplished debut about war, survival and humanity . . . this is very much in the territory of The Book Thief and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas with all the potential that such a comparison suggests

[a] complex graceful book

Exquisite

Exquisite debut novel

Like the characters in his debut novel, author Gavriel Savit has harnessed the power of language. He's a talented wordsmith, wielding words and sentences with a precision that allows them to wriggle deep into this reader's heart, leaving me both enchanted and brokenhearted

One of those all ages and no age stories . . . told by a genuine wordsmith . . . And it's a story of generosity in the worst of times. Of friendship and loyalty and yes, of love despite all the horror. We won't forget how it felt to read it. Ever

A beautiful and stunning read . . . It creeps slowly into your heart just like Morris Gleitzman'sOnce, and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas did

Such an important, painful, beautiful, hopeful read

A harsh tale of innocence lost, yet touched with magic

This is cleverly done and beautifully written tale of loss, hope, survival and trust

Savit spins a dark and heart-breaking tale of history and fable seen through the eyes of a child. A thought-provoking read, great for book clubs

A complex, gruelling trip through the midnight of the last century

Written with a clipped, capering style and comic flair that can't fail to charm.

A profound, often funny survey of mid-20th-Century Russia

Unputdownable

Among the greatest comic novels of all time . . . told with such style and wit that every page reduced me to helpless laughter and admiration

The book I would recommend to anyone who appreciates what only fiction can do … It’s a page-turner and a delight.

I love the novels of Amor Towles, especially A Gentleman in Moscow - he has this ability to nail the idiosyncrasies and quirks of a character in just a few words.

A heart-warming story that asks the reader to consider what is important in life. We loved it. *****

I can highly recommend A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles as lockdown reading ... The story resonates because we have all endured restricted lifestyles of late and may continue to for months to come.

It is a good book to read during this pandemic because it's about how he is being confined to Moscow's Hotel Metropol.

Towles's book is a delight, with a beguiling central character and lively descriptions of life in Russia over a period of 30 years.

A wonderful bookwhich gives the reader an understanding of life in post revolution Moscow.

Totally original novel ... A great deal of Russian history is also subtly woven into this magical book, which is tear-jerking but never sentimental, with a quite unexpected and thrilling ending.

Wonderful, combining brilliant storytelling with beautiful writing.

I love the novels of Amor Towles, especially A Gentleman in Moscow - he has this ability to nail the idiosyncrasies and quirks of a character in just a few words.

It's hard not to fall in love with Count Rostov, an impeccably mannered and mischievous aesthete placed under permanent house arrest at Moscow's Metropol hotel ... An endearing and frequently hilarious novel that covers big topics with a velvet touch.

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.