Hilarious and thought-provoking

Thoughtful and intelligently observed... Evans's delicate prose weaves issues of racial identity and politics into the narrative so that they never feel heavy-handed...a deftly observed, elegiac portrayal of modern marriage, and the private – often painful – quest for identity and fulfilment in all its various guises

Ordinary People...is very insightful… a detailed, well observed description of modern marriage

It could easily be reimagined for the screen, though the film would not capture the sheer energy and effervescence of Evans’s funny, sad, magnificent prose

Diana Evans’s fiction is emotionally intelligent, dark, funny, moving. The sheer energy in her novels is enthralling. A brilliant craftswoman, a master of the form, she makes the reader ask important questions of themselves and makes them laugh at the same time

Achieves a moody, velvety atmosphere, as though events were unfolding under amber-tinted bulbs...offers a precise sketch of the British black middle class, with a daring fifth-act twist

Evans gives us romance going cold with just as pitiless a precision as Flaubert in Madame Bovary... Evans's prose is magnificent: it's as if she measured each sentence, trimmed the excess weight, then fitted it into place

One of the very many things that makes this book exceptional is the even-handed sympathy and unflinching fidelity with which Evans charts the changing weather both of her protagonists’ emotions and family life. She excels at dialogue and she’s also a soulful lyrical chronicler of London in all its moods and guises

I’m currently very much enjoying Diana Evans’s novel Ordinary People, which takes a forensic look at the pleasures and perils of marriage and parenting and modern London living

Ordinary People offers a unique insight into the complexities and the challenges of modern life, identity and that lovely little thing we call love. From the moment I started to read it I was absolutely gripped - that’s how good it is. It is a beautifully crafted, honest exploration of how relationships are forged and deconstructed, and how the everyday and the remarkable can exist side by side.

There is something radical in how Evans depicts the lives of young, black people, faithfully, fully and quietly

A gorgeous, wild, layered novel

Ordinary People is a very funny book...a reminder of the power that only the novel has: to show you a familiar world from someone else's perspective

Sparkling... Rich, complex and quietly extreme, Ordinary People is a forensic study of human relationships, one that finds, like the best novels, universality in the specific. It is also a supreme London novel... In short, it's a joy from start to finish

Does literary fiction have a blind spot when it comes to race? When a novel like Diana Evans's Ordinary People feels unusual, you have to wonder... This is a wonderful novel – generous, clear-sighted and rich with the old-fashioned pleasure of characters you're left impatient to revisit

That rarest thing: a literary novel about real, recognizable human beings—a poignant portrait of middle life in London's middle class. Evans has given us four thirtysomething characters so perfectly drawn that they seem to come from a brilliant Netflix dramedy, but has rendered them with a classical prose so confident that it seems to come from a 19th century novel. Beach reading for the thinking beachgoer: as intelligent and insightful as it is hilariously entertaining.

Ordinary People is that rarest of books – a portrait that lays bare the normality of black family life in suburban London, while revealing its deepest psyche, its tragedies, its hopes and its magic. The words are infused with a beauty that leaves the reader spellbound and yet astounded by the familiarity of it all. I had not realised how much I longed for characters like these until I found them, brought alive here with such compassion. A wondrous book.

Ordinary People sings with every word. The writing is pitch perfect, the underlying politics of race and gender is never heavy handed, and the characterisation of south London is enviable. I know these streets and they beat to the music that runs through this book...a lyrical and beautiful story. It's a triumph

Intensely relatable

Diana Evans writes exquisitely beautifully about the interior landscapes of human relationships set against the urban and suburban cityscapes of London. Her characters are portrayed with depth, perceptiveness and complexity, and through the descriptions of their emotional journeys, we discover a language to understand ourselves

Diana Evans has masterfully crafted a beautiful, nuanced story about love, loss, and redemption. With compelling prose and an uncanny insight into the questions life throw at us as human beings, she has established herself as a voice to behold.

Evans' prose has a musical quality

A wonderfully warm and intelligent novel

13 new books to put a spring in your step’, mention: ‘Ordinary London lives are captured with lyricism and integrity… A quiet, vividly-drawn novel about the moments of angst and joy that make up everyday life.

Sheer energy and effervescence… Funny, sad, magnificent prose.

The agony of ordinary life is what makes Ordinary People an absorbing read. Evans gives us an entirely readable account of relationships, recognising how they defeat us, encircle us and leave us gasping for air.

Intelligent and thoughtful.

Rich, complex and quietly extreme… A joy from start to finish.

A painfully accurate analysis of a life stage.

[An] impressively controlled tale of marital disharmony, parental ambivalence and lost identity… There’s a deep underlying sadness here, but it’s a rewarding and ruthlessly funny novel.

This is a highly enjoyable novel, full of wit and sharp observation

Evans is a superb writer of emotional moments: how enchanting they are, how they both resist and inspire description… Evans’s prose is always magnificent, composed and unshowy

A sympathetic and smart study of two metropolitan couples on the brink. Evans paints a quietly agonising picture of everyday life that is at once specific and timeless

Steeped in London’s grit and enduring allure, this is a psychologically acute, sexy, funny and hugely affecting novel

The compromises we make in marriage and as parents are explored in Evans’ lyrical and entertaining study of two thirtysomething couples on the brink. With its accompanying playlist of Faith Evans, Amy Winehouse and Jay-Z, a beat pulses through this slice of south London life, as Evans’ characters celebrate Obama’s victory and come to terms with the end of their salad days.

Evans' writing is like water; her sentences ebb and flow and change course, mirroring the Thames as it wends its way in and around the characters' lives

A masterpiece of modern living

An amazing book full of wisdom and empathy

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