Hilary Spurling's exhaustive analysis of the novel's characters supplies a master-key for the reader

'Edric is a terrific storyteller but he also provides a pretty accurate picture of modern-day crime and the way that it affects so many people. Impressive stuff'

'Edric keeps his readers - and Rivers - dangling on a tangled string'

'Edric shows his mastery over the complexities of a crime thriller ... Classic whodunit territory and lovers of the genre will find Siren Song right up their street'

Intense, elegant, despairing prose...deeply affecting

A transcendentally harmonious and compassionate work

A surprisingly tender book... Amid the terror a classic story about love sneaks through: love lost, love imagined, love morphed into madness

Beautifully written... It puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban... Disturbing and mesmerizing, The Swallows of Kabul will stay with you long after you've finished it

Riveting... Spare, taut, and pristinely clear prose... An uncanny knack for making moral tension palpable... Extraordinarily moving

A novel very much in the tradition of Albert Camus, not only in its humanism and concern with the consequences of individual choices but also in its determination to bear witness to the absurdities of daily life... [A] chilling portrait of fundamentalism run amok and its fallout on ordinary people