Author:John Irving

A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love — tormented, funny, and affecting — and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a ‘sexual suspect’, a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 — in his landmark novel of ‘terminal cases’, The World According to Garp.
His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers — a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself ‘worthwhile’.
This wonderful novel is an epic, moving survey of 70 years of sexual revolution
—— The TimesDeeply enjoyable... a comic celebration of polymorphous perversity, and of literature
—— GuardianIrving has rarely written with the gorgeous poise and control he musters here
—— Financial TimesIn One Person gives a lot. It’s funny, as you would expect. It’s risky in what it exposes. Tolerance, in a John Irving novel is not about anything goes; it’s what happens when we face our own desires honestly, whether we act on them or not
—— Jeanette WintersonA brave and hugely affecting depiction of how in one life (sexual and otherwise) we contain multitudes
—— ElleBoldly conceived and energetically executed
—— SpectatorSuperbly conceived
—— MetroA rich and absorbing book, even beautiful
—— EsquireTold with Irving's typically Dickensian scope and humanity, In One Person is a celebration of difference
—— The WordIrving writes with clarity and compassion about the Aids epidemic: his forensic detailing of this merciless disease is deeply affecting
—— Irish TimesCrammed with Irving's signature cleverness
—— The ScotsmanThis tender exploration of nascent desire, of love and loss, manages to be sweeping, brilliant, political, provocative, tragic and funny - it is precisely the kind of astonishing alchemy we associate with a John Irving novel. A profound truth is arrived at in these pages. It is Irving at his most daring, at his most ambitious. It is America and American writing, both at their very best
—— Abraham VergheseIn One Person is a novel that makes you proud to be human. It is a book that not only accepts but also loves our differences. From the beginning of his career Irving has always cherished our peculiarities - in a fierce, not a saccharine way. Now he has extended his sympathies - and ours - still further into areas that even the misfits eschew. John Irving in this magnificent novel - his best and most passionate since The World According to Garp - has sacralized what lies between polarizing genders and orientations. And have I mentioned it is also a gripping page-turner and a beautifully constructed work of art?
—— Edmund WhiteA quietly compelling and provocative work
—— Sunday Business PostA dark and sinewy novel, written with sparse clarity and affecting subtlety
—— Stuart Evers , Observer Books of the YearIn a year marked by epics, it's a relief to delve into this quiet, surprisingly tense debut novel - small enough to stuff in a stocking but packing a huge emotional punch
—— Entertainment WeeklyA novel of subtle beauty and quiet grace; I found myself hanging on every simple word, as tense about the consequences of a man finding an apartment as if I were reading about a man defusing a bomb. ... It is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. ... With elegant restraint, Baxter layers the narratives, anecdotes and experiences in the manner of life as continuous essay, the topic of which might be stated as, "What is a right way to be in the world?" ... It is very much to Baxter's credit that he presents this struggle as if it were thriller, love story, philosophical novel and dark comedy combined, in a novel not liek a bullet but like an arrow flying straight to the heart of the matter.
—— New York Times Book ReviewA quiet and powerful read through and through. Baxter's clean and direct prose generates its own momentum. He chooses not to create a tidy drama where characters are explained by their pasts. Rather, he creates something bigger and more true.
—— Daily BeastCompelling ... captures the mood of the current moment and what seems to be a new "lost generation", one formed not so much by exposure to violence, as immunity to and alienation from it. Once upon a time, there was no place like home; in Mr. Baxter's world, home, it seems, is no place.
—— New York TimesAbsorbing, atmospheric and enigmatic ... With its disorienting juxtaposition of the absolutely ordinary and the strange and vaguely threatening, the novel evokes the work of Franz Kafka and Haruki Murakami, while its oblique explorations of memory suggest a debt to W.G. Sebald
—— Los Angeles TimesA thrilling follow-up to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island...Silver is a novel that will appeal to readers of all ages. Beautifully written and genuinely exciting...Best of all, Motion’s novel stays true to Stevenson’s original tale while adding an extra dimension.
—— Emma Lee-Potter , Daily ExpressElegant, thrilling sequel...The plot is gripping, a mixture of high adventure, low cunning and desperation...Motion’s prose vivid and glowingly poetic, is a brilliant counterpoint to the fascinating action.
—— Eithne Farry , Daily MailThis is a pacey tale with an appropriately feisty young heroine for modern readers
—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on SundayAndrew Motion brings lyricism but, more importantly, rollicking adventure to this sequel to Treasure Island
—— Mail on Sunday