A world of vivid places and intensely human characters ...the greatest and most rewarding novel of the 20th Century The novel unfolds a lifetime of experiences, which enlarges our understanding of love and nature, memory and snobbery.

Everything that Colette touched became human... She was a complete sensualist; but she gave herself up to her senses with such delicacy of perception, with such exquisiteness of physical pain as well as physical ecstasy, that she ennobled sensualism almost to grandeur

I devoured Chérie at a gulp. What a wonderful subject you have taken up and with what intelligence, mastery and understanding of the least-admitted secrets of the flesh

King's most accomplished and compelling story to date

Evokes the punk era superbly

'It will be surprising if this year sees a more disturbing or haunting novel'

'Stunning . . . evocatively brings to life the stifling humidity and constant rainfall of the Congo'

'A really brilliant first novel, he is obviously a major talent'

'The match of the madder moments of John Irving or Tom Sharpe...this is a promisingly entertaining "lite" read'

'At its best when taking pot-shots at a wide variety of modern ills - fast food, tabloid media, downsizing, soap-opera politics...One of Morgan's nicer inventions is a computer program that boils down complex texts to their essentials. Its treatment of the Old Testament renders it down to: "Because I say so, that's why"'

'Suspenseful, atmospheric and highly intelligent, Jody Shields focuses a brilliant light on the murky world of imperial Vienna'