Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns

Huge, exhilarating, loving and detailed eruption of a novel...an utterly intoxicating display of novelistic elan...big and joyous, literary and accessible...storytelling at its buoyant best

Wonderfully eloquent and forceful Kate Atkinson goes at the same pace in her second novel as she did in her first...welcome back, wild north-easter...brilliant and engrossing

Vivid and intriguing...fizzles and crackles along...a tour de force

Part ghost story, part murder mystery, this is an exquisitely written, literary novel that reads as compellingly as any thriller

A stunner of a second novel...a gutsy book, wrenched from the heart and written with tremendous force, immersing you in its strange, eccentric world

The quirky imagination, subversive humour and instinct for domestic chaos that Atkinson displayed in her first novel...are rampantly evident again

Classic Ryan; poignant and atmospheric storytelling ... quiet but intermittently explosive

I knew Donal Ryan's latest would be good and I was right - it's a risky act of imagination that works, and the sentences are as beautiful as ever

The lyricism of Ryan's prose, laced with compassion, is astonishing

With each new novel Donal Ryan's ink seems to sink deeper into the page. In Strange Flowers he gathers together the fragments of broken lives and makes us something new and beautiful from them

A book so exquisite in its language it pushes me to want to write better ... you will love the quiet world of Paddy & Kit Gladney and all it is their daughter Moll brings to their door. Beautiful

A beautiful, almost unbearably moving novel. Donal Ryan's compassion shines through every word he writes

This is a novel to savour, for its mastery of language, its power of storytelling and its sure hand as it covers the sweep of time. Irish fiction was in a great place already, but Donal Ryan has gone and raised the bar again. All the beauty and sorrow of life can be found in these pages

The lyricism of the prose can be pitch perfect, placing Ryan among the great writers of rural Ireland such as John McGahern and Mary Lavin

It is the sweetest, gentlest story of love ... each character so tenderly evoked

Ryan's beautifully written story reads like coming home and is a breath of fresh air

Tender and beautifully written ... We read this outstanding book in one sitting and will definitely return to it again

What a beautiful book, I loved it

Beautifully observed Tipperary setting and tenderly created characters telling a story of loss and redemption ... Love permeates Ryan's work

A master with the written world and who has an insight into the Irish psyche which is not only stunning, but is hard to touch with a flame

The slim novel belies its size by packing in a whole world of exploration of social class, gender, sexuality, race, parenthood, and religion. For all its scope, nothing is shoehorned in. It's all naturally and gently explored

One of the greatest Irish novels of this century so far

A brilliant and ambitious addition to a body of work from an author who is inevitably, and seemingly effortlessly, writing his way into the pantheon of great Irish novelists

Utterly captivating

Ryan reaffirms his place amongst Ireland's greatest wordsmiths ... This is a book which more than justifies the hype that accompanies it

A novel carried by deep feeling and great empathy

The writing is so exquisite, the dialogue so authentic, the sympathy so deep

Ryan's love of people pours from every page

One of the standout books for me this year. He's a master of the craft and has written a family story with humanity and warmth, turning sentence after sentence to die for

Inventive

A lovingly crafted story that draws you in, gets under the skin and will resonate long after

Every one of her books makes you question the order of things... She is one of the greatest writers of the past century

Margaret Atwood has just done her own thing and now she is one of those authors who is helping to change the culture. I love her for her politics. When The Handmaid's Tale was published in 1985, it just seemed that that kind of theocracy and patriarchy she was depicting couldn't happen, the world was progressing, but look where we are

A hopeful tale. It reassures us that we are right to fear our enemies and right to resist them, and that totalitarianism can be seen off... The heroines in The Testaments are marvellously resourceful... It is massively satisfying to find this kind of heightened reality in fiction

Ingenuity has always delighted Atwood. Here she revels in it... The twists and turns of an extravagantly suspenseful final race for freedom are done with bravura relish

The Testaments take us to a subtly altered Gilead and, in many ways, a more hopeful one... a rallying cry for activism that argues for the connectedness of societies and their peoples... Atwood's task in returning to the world of her best-known work was a big one, but the result is a success

Atwood's voice has become a rallying cry against climate change and threats to equality

Atwood cracks open the claustrophobic world of Gilead and lets in some much-needed light and hope. Spare, tense and exciting

It’s a very different novel from The Handmaid’s Tale, charged with the optimism of change rather than drenched in nightmarish sweat... terrific

Taut and gratifying… At the heart of the novel is a consideration of the power of narrative itself – of who gets to speak and listen, of the ability for information to limit, control or expand a person’s world… ultimately the truth retains the power to destroy

It delivers superbly. The Testaments is, first and foremost, a manual of resistance . . . providing its readers first with a road map and secondly with hope

Gripping and full of incident, a deft balance of horror and wit… As ever, Atwood cuts to the truth about women and power

The oppressed feminist shriek of the first novel gets its more optimistic echo in The Testaments...has the dramatic thrust and power to scorch the memory

It is a measure of Atwood's virtuosity as a writer... that rather than picking up where she left off in 1985 when The Handmaid's Tale was published, she has written such a perfect companion piece

Like all good dystopian writers, she presents us with a cracked mirror in which we are asked
to see distorted images of ourselves

If The Handmaid's Tale is disturbing, The Testaments is, in many ways, even more so. Less violent, sure, but Gilead isn't fresh and new at this point. It is a society that has existed for well over a decade, and as such it has become normality for all those who live there...this is, perhaps, far more frightening than the punishments and cruelty we see in the original text

After Donald Trump's election, Ms Atwood came to be seen by some as a soothsayer... If The Handmaid's Tale was a warning, The Testaments has a more positive message... Ms Atwood says that it reflects a sense of hopefulness on her part

For those waiting to find out what happened next, The Testaments is a fantastic conclusion to the story

The transgressive, deliciously dangerous mind of Margaret Atwood

Compelling, poignant and controlled, Atwood's latest work will have any reader gripped

The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments can seem like dark tales for dark times. But Atwood argues that they are not. "Writing is always an act of hope,” she says, “because it assumes a reader. It assumes a reader in the future"... If what we need right now is a great big bundle of hope – and we do – I for one feel extremely reassured that Margaret Atwood is on hand to provide it.

Beautiful in its depth... It is in some ways the continuation and in some sense a response to the extraordinarily powerful world of Gilead she created in The Handmaid's Tale 30-odd years ago. There is a need now to look at what complicity, resilience and resistance might look like

Atwood mania is entirely merited. Not only is there no greater living writer, "Peggy Nature" as friends refer to her eco-activism, is our beloved sage. Her novels have engaged with myth, identity, the sisterhood, and our apocalyptic ecological crisis. Yet nothing has taken flight like her patriarchal dystopia, and nowhere more so than among women

She's always before her time. Each novel is about something people become incredibly interested in half an hour later... There is this tradition of women's writing that uses irony and lightness of touch to deliver monstrous concepts and beliefs. It's that ironic voice that has helped her seamlessly move from one generation of reader to the next. That is the test of a great writer

A savage and beautiful novel, and it speaks to us today, all around the world, with particular conviction and power

The Testaments has come at the right moment for her as well as us because she's now a real sage

A feast

A truly dazzling literary feat that – blessed be the fruit – entirely lives up to the hope and the hype… Atwood’s particular genius is pushing and pushing at sexist tropes until they reach their grotesque but ultimately logical conclusion

The Testaments calls for thought and reflection… ideological commitment is not its only characteristic. It is also a thriller, with a fast-paced plot featuring many entangled concealments and dramatic confrontations… Atwood’s writing is at its incisive best... Atwood is not simply responding to our current anxieties… it is also her own testament, and a renewal of the warning of The Handmaid’s Tale

The Testaments is all the better for choosing other, quieter forms of resistance for women under Gilead’s rule… The sequel is able to buoy you as a reader in a way The Handmaid’s Tale had no interest in doing, but sit with it and it’s still slippery and at times satisfyingly unsatisfying. This is an intriguing book from a woman who knows she can do bleak any day of the week

The Testaments combines gripping entertainment with a complex sense of humanity

Lydia's fascinating tale serves almost as a prequel, while the girls' stirring battle is peppered with pithy wit. Praise be

Atwood has conjured a compelling sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale that is tautly plotted in spare, economical prose… In The Testaments, Atwood succeeds in regaining control of Gilead through words

Terrifying, rage-inducing and utterly gripping

The interaction between these three women is deftly drawn. The enemy never feels other than overwhelmingly malign, yet perversely human and fallible

The Testaments cements Aunt Lydia as one of the most fascinatingly monstrous anti-heroes in fiction

‘Reminds us of the vital connection between words and power and how important it is to validate women’s words in particular

But the biggest name, with the year’s biggest book, is Margaret Atwood: her Handmaid’s Tale sequel The Testaments

The biggest publishing event of the year

For my money, the single most exciting publishing event of the year

One of the most eagerly awaited books of the year

One of the year’s big novels will undoubtedly be Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments

It will be one of the literary events of the year

We'll be poring over The Handmaid's Tale for the 100th time in readiness

The hoopla around the launch of Margaret Atwood's The Testaments is more reminiscent of the unveiling of an iPhone or something Pokemon related than that of a mere book

Tuesday was not merely Tuesday but Testaments Day, and the Capital Testaments Town

Last week's release of Atwood's sequel, The Testaments, made the last Harry Potter launch look like a wet November afternoon...a truly dazzling literary feat that -- blessed be the fruit -- entirely lives up to the hope and the hype... Atwood's particular genius is pushing and pushing at sexist tropes until they reach their grotesque but ultimately logical conclusion

Taylor Swift would kill for this kind of drama... Now, to read it

Spoiler discretion and a ferocious non-disclosure agreement prevent any description of who, how, why and even where. So this: it’s terrifying and exhilarating

Terrifying and exhilarating

Atwood’s musings on power and the patterns of history [is] as incisive as ever

Undeniably page-turning stuff

A publishing sensation

The perfect escapist pleasure

Page-turning stuff

Canada's visionary

A delicious page-turner

A gripping novel with a satisfying conclusion

The Testamnets is a cracking sequel to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and a timely warning about the lengths to which a patriarchal culture will go to control female sexuality

A superb and suspenseful expose of misogyny and the moral ambiguity at the heart of a fanatical regime

[A] rare combination of a rollicking thriller with major political nous told one of our greatest living writers. Essential

An era-defining masterpiece

The Testaments… lived up to the hype

Superbly written and masterfully constructs the regime of Gilead more than its predecessor was able to

The extraordinary Margaret Atwood... she's fabulous'

[A] compelling story

Atwood's sequel shines with all the acuity and brilliance of the original, whilst continuing the story with flair and modern insight

There is no language I could use to express the emotion and beauty behind Margaret Atwood's words. Her work takes you on a journey of emotion - whether you are ready to fight, be kind, be vulnerable, stay strong or simply be, she takes you there

Thrilling, a meditation on courage which asks us to consider what our own response might be were we forced to choose between meek complicity and rebellion at risk of death

She's taken our times and made us wise to them

Inspiring and deeply disturbing