Maugham was one of the great masters of clever narrative and construction

A formidable talent, a formidable sum of talents

It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. . . . He was always so entirely there

The loyalties and betrayals, the love and the hate, the endless, everlasting courage of the men - and the women - of both sides are brought to life in this vivid, inspirational recreation of the Troy myth

She has an expressive turn of phrase and a gift for evoking a sense of place

Attachment faces the uncomfortable subject of female ageing with wry, disabused humour...read her book on its own feminist terms'

Fonseca's prose is fluent, confident and often funny ... she has a gift for satire that glimmers through this novel. And a near-perfect ear for nuances of speech. Attachment is ferociously well observed. Both physiologically and socially ... as a first novel, the signs of greater things are clearly there

Fonseca's voice - poised, particular, exotic - rises above her plot

Her prose is elegant and wry

Fonseca's talent lies in describing the texture of daily life: the mango with a 'skin like sunset', the pizza boxes that open 'like laptops' ... she is good on the sweep of history and the cultural climate of previous times ... telling details of character - particularly the male characters, are captured well

Isabel Fonseca's slinkily assured debut novel shows a wry appreciation of the complexities of modern love...a novel that presumes to put a woman's mid-life crisis - sexual, spiritual and intellectual - centre stage

Involving novel

this smart, clammy drama, manages to be both unsettling and touching

Fabulous and very clever

A witty exploration of the preoccupations of middle age - sex, serious illness, the death of a parent - its main attraction being the voice, at once tough, funny and lonely, of the inimitable Jean.

Fonesca's debut novel is a funny, heart rendering account of the virtues of love and desire, confounded against the everyday.

Beautifully written

It is expertly written in its way, and oddly compelling - like a slushy movie you can't help but respond to

Moving and thoughtful ... Poignant and compelling, this lyrical novel lifts the veil on an internal world of love, rivalry and misunderstanding; an intricate depiction of sibling relationships

A beautifully evocative and intelligent novel

This impassioned tale is a gripping read

Jones is fabulous...offering titbits of danger and discord, yet keeping a cool matter-of-fact tone for the big horrors

Her second novel is a must-read; a devastating, brilliant account of what happens when everything a man believes in...begins to crumble

Full of danger and discord