Author:Marcel Proust

In this second volume of In Search of Lost Time, the narrator turns from the childhood reminiscences of Swann’s Way to memories of his adolescence. Having gradually become indifferent to Swann’s daughter Gilberte, the narrator visits the seaside resort of Balbec with his grandmother and meets a new object of attention—Albertine, “a girl with brilliant, laughing eyes and plump, matt cheeks.”
For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of Á la recherché du temps perdu (the final volume of these new editions was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989).
RK Narayan's Malgudi novels are humorous gems and it is a great pity that they are not better known. He wrote beautifully and with great compassion, something regrettably lacking in some humorous writing
—— Alexander McCall SmithWhimsical, evocative, heartfelt... Synthesizing a blur of images, Hideous Kinky is a song of childhood exile, a paean to the troublesome beauty of life on the run
—— New York TimesFunny and appealing... It has a delightful lightness of being
—— Times Literary SupplementJust open the book and begin, and instantly you will be charmed, then intrigued and finally moved by this fascinating story
—— SpectatorGenuine and endearing... Esther Freud is adroit at capturing the way adult follies appear to a child [and] she has a gift for unstated hilarity... Like the sword swallowers in the marketplace, she manages to make it look effortless
—— Los Angeles Times'It will be surprising if this year sees a more disturbing or haunting novel'
—— Peter Kemp , The Sunday Times'Stunning . . . evocatively brings to life the stifling humidity and constant rainfall of the Congo'
—— John Cooper , The Times'A really brilliant first novel, he is obviously a major talent'
—— Prunella Scales'The match of the madder moments of John Irving or Tom Sharpe...this is a promisingly entertaining "lite" read'
—— The Times'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"'
—— Independent'Suspenseful, atmospheric and highly intelligent, Jody Shields focuses a brilliant light on the murky world of imperial Vienna'
—— D. M. Thomas