Rai never shies away from difficult topics, and here tackles the controversial issue of honour killings. It's utterly compelling, and will be much-debated

Splendidly funny

What clinches the novel's success is Mr Sharpe's brilliant comic style. His phrasing, his timing, and his extraordinarily deft handling of the minutiae of comic incidents make for real hilarity

Britain's leading practitioner of black humour

There’s almost no one funnier

Then is a devastatingly dark story, and the hypnotic quality of its writing, and the searing vision it lays before us, certainly appear to have sprung from a deep and frightening source

The eeriness of the world outside is conveyed well; as are the horrors that beset the survivors... It is highly readable and involving, offering tantalising clues as the reader tries to navigate the grisly streets of London and the dark corners of the narrator's mind...but the central human narrative is strong and clear, proving that even in darkness there are points of light

One of Myerson's strength's lies in creating atmosphere... Myerson sees the pathos in small details

At first this genre-bending novel feels like a departure for Myerson, but familiar themes kick in – injured children, broken homes, psychological torment. It’s a chilling and original portrait of breakdown

Myerson displays a deft touch at providing the reader with telling, troubling details, clues to what might have happened. Unremittingly bleak, Then is a novel about memory as a woman tries to piece together the fragments of her past

A really compelling story