Mr. Alexie manages to move effortlessly in and out of centuries like a person moving between waking and sleep... Right up to the novel's final sentence, Mr. Alexie succeeds yet again with his ability to pierce to the heart of matters, leaving this reader with tears in her eyes

A funny, irreverent, sardonic but sentimental, rebellious voice set beside his elder...contemporaries...Alexie is the bad boy among them, mocking, self-mocking, unpredictable, unassimilable, reminding us of the young Philip Roth

A welcome return, for this writer, to novel form, and as a fresh, sophisticated take on the ever-popular dysfunctional family saga

Anne Enright has all she needs in terms of imagination and technique and she's a tremendous phrase maker

Enright ambushes as memory does, drawing you into an event and then questioning its reality

At a time when everyone is mirroring everyone else, Enright's style of writing remains singular and instantly identifiable

If this exquisitely written, funny, touching finale doesn't actually win something, then there's no justice

Woodward's novels rise far above the ordinary. His characters are wonderfully complex and rich

It is Woodward's special ability to extract even from these grim beginnings some grounds for hope, and , indeed, some comic potential

Assured and accomplished

Above all an unsentimental tribute to family

Woodward wonderfully depicts the ignominies of old age and bereavement

Quite brilliant ... the writing is scintillatingly good at times, working up to vivid and hilarious scenes ... a book that alerts you to the whole beautiful absurdity of life