Groundbreaking ... Ishmael Reed is a major figure in American letters

A remorseless satire of America's appetite for slavery fantasies

Relentlessly readable

A franchise to eclipse Harry Potter

Number Four is a hero for this generation

Raw and beautiful

The Republic of Motherhood is a brilliant reflection of what it's like to become a mum and those first exhausting months

A beautifully presented pamphlet of poems about becoming a mother

If we had to take a guess, All These Beautiful Strangers will be the literary thriller of the summer . . . It's the perfect blend of glamour, diabolicalness, and The Secret History

[A] highly charged, addictive psychological thriller that combines the dishy gamesmanship of Gossip Girl with the murky atmosphere of The Secret History

All These Beautiful Strangers was a wonderful, gripping read - a YA The Secret History that captivated me and at one point made me seriously consider missing my train stop so I could get to the end of a chapter. I will be recommending it to everyone

A gripping thriller where secrets of the past and present stir in the shadows. I was drawn in from the start and couldn't wait to discover the truth. A real page-turner!

Wealth, power and danger - All These Beautiful Strangers has it all. If you like your books twisty and dangerous, then meet your new obsession

A creepy, atmospheric American murder mystery that made me think of The Secret History - I can't wait for everyone to read it when it comes out

A page-turning debut that will keep readers guessing until the end. Readers of Liane Moriarty and psychological thrillers will not want to put this down

S.T.A.G.S meets The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Bankes in this high society thriller. Joining a secret society at her upper class boarding school leads Charlie to discover old family secrets that were better left at peace.

An emotional and heart racing thriller that I believe will find a huge international audience

Finally a book that has had me gripped to keep reading and filled the hole that One Of Us Is Lying left me with!

You will be thrown into a world of suspense and secrecy that you will not want to leave

Twisty and turny, full of mystery and intrigue and beautiful people doing horrible things, All These Beautiful Strangers was a psychological thriller that I just could not put down!

Long and twisted so prepare for a binge read

A real page turner. You will not be able to put down this book that is filled with suspense, drama and so much more!

I recommend picking it up if you're a fan of YA mystery/thrillers

Tyler's bedazzling yet fathoms-deep feel-good novel is wrought with nimble humour, intricate understanding of emotions and family, place and community – and bounteous pleasure in quirkiness, discovery, and renewal

I never look at a family, or a couple in a car, or a funeral cortege without thinking: "I wonder what's going on there." That's what Anne Tyler teaches you: never judge a cover until you've read its book

Tyler captures the quiet turmoil of family life with the utmost discretion, knowing that to understand it is not the same as being able to subordinate it

Rigorously intelligent, quietly funny and very precise about words

A beautifully observed portrait of one woman’s quiet quest for identity and purpose

Clock Dance is moving, funny acute… This is a beautifully structured work of fiction, full of narrative tension, which moves towards a fine diminuendo, followed by a crisis of possibility

A lovely novel following the author’s usual theme of hope and regret, renewal and contentment

Tyler has the ability to bring character to life in just a few sentences

Characters pulse with lifelikeness. The tone flickers between humorous relish and sardonic shrewdness. Dialogue crackles with authenticity… Clock Dance is a warmly appealing tale of timely recuperation

Anne Tyler’s astute new novel Clock Dance is fuelled by kindness, kindness that begins tentatively with false starts and blind spots and grows into the extravagant all-encompassing sort

I loved Clock Dance

Expect nuance and laser-eyed perception here, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author

Warmly appealing and sharply observant...combines comic relish with psychological and social shrewdness. Characters pulse with lifelikeness. Dialogue crackles with authenticity. Changes brought about by time are fascinatedly and fascinatingly observed

A moving, often spiky study of relationships and the far-reaching effects of trauma

A thought-provoking story that resonates with emotional depth

An immersive look into friendship, parenthood, sex, and grief - as well as the fragility of love. It is told with such detail, you're left wanting more

Beautifully written and observed

Evans is extraordinarily good on the minutiae of grief, family, and the fragility of love

a lyrical portrait of modern London

Placing culturally marginalised voices centre stage to explode open a world many of us know little about... [The Mars Room] left me in tears.

Crushing... A powerful, tragic novel.

[A] visceral portrait of prison life

The charm and wit of the incarcerated people in The Mars Room shines in Kushner's prose

A mysterious portrait of contemporary America and life on its margins... for fans of "Orange Is The New Black".

A very compelling read… hilarious and depressing and rage-inducing in equal measures.

Absorbing.

Lyrical, bleakly comic and, ultimately, intensely affecting

It is a necessary and compelling book, and this year’s must read

Rachel Kushner’s exhaustive research into what goes on within these walls

Kushner’s high-definition, high-impact prose is as electrifying as it is daring

The momentum of the novel resides in its prose, the spring and sass of a voice so vivid it can largely dispense with the mechanics of plot

A salty and hilarious novel from one of America's best living novelists.

Rachel Kushner's The Mars Room should be a favourite [to win the Man Booker Prize]. If you like your escapism as gritty as it gets, prepare to be hooked by this unflinching account of a female prisoner serving a double life sentence... The Mars Room is rarely easy reading, but the furore of voices and violence and injustice throws you right into the story and keeps you immersed there.

Kushner’s novel is a timely reminder that a country’s authoritarian tendencies can be most easily measured by the number of people it deems unworthy of freedom

Rachel Kushner knows how to sniff out a good character.

Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room immerses you in the life of a high-security women’s prison in California, its central character Romy – accused of killing her stalker – both gritty and fragile. This was not a subject I thought would grip me, but in Kushner’s firm hands I was entranced. Much of the book is autobiographical – while never in prison herself, Kushner was the daughter of Beatniks and allowed to roam the dodgier areas of San Francisco as a teenager. The characters range from bullet-headed killers to a well-meaning male teacher whose ambiguities are brilliantly done. Romy’s trans friend Conan, “shoulders as broad as the aisle, and a jawline beard”, is delightfully free of the politically correct, while the style veers excitingly from straight narrative to scribbled lists like whimpers of despair.

Rachel Kushner's The Mars Room was a hot favourite on this year's Booker shortlist, and it's easy to see why… Kushner's atmospheric writing is compelling to the last.

Kushner’s writing is the most marvellous I read this year… time and again I found myself rereading paragraphs of The Mars Room for her perfectly turned sentences, the music of her prose

[A] brilliantly compelling read