Respect for honour and tradition, wicked humour and a vital social message combine in an appealing yet sometimes shocking read

The story remains engrossing, and when Xinran turns her attention to the frenetic streets and history of Nanjing, her own beloved hometown, the prose truly comes to life

This mood of hope, as both inspiring and ultimately attainable, is what makes Miss Chopsticks such an uplifting read

Xinran's tale will likely play on the mind for years to come

Xinran's skill lies in investigating the universal human thoughts and emotions behind the girls' naivety

Unforgettable

Xinran weaves the fresh and touching tale of three sisters

Heartwarming

A fiercely romantic novel that spans over 100 years of Danish history of war and love... Large in size, but even larger in scope because of its storytelling and writing.

Epic tale

A rollicking debut by Jensen, the latest in a lineage of authors of maritime sagas stretching from Homer to Patrick O'Brien

Carsten Jensen took the seafaring history of small Danish port and made of it a mighty ocean-going vessel of stories about a whole world in motion.

Beautifully translated and packed with enough drama, suspense and philosophical speculation for myriad lesser novels, We, The Drowned is bold, brilliant, unmissable stuff.

An epic drama of adventure, courage, ruthlessness and passion... A life-changing experience for all

I was swept away (pun noted but not intended) by this wonderful book. I didn't want it to end and thankfully, given its length, it didn't do so for some considerable time. It was voted the greatest Danish book of the last 25 years. I have no idea what sort of competition it was up against but its victory doesn't surprise me: it is one of the best books I have read in the past 25 years as well.

McEwan is word-perfect at handling the awkward comedy of this relationship and, as ever, turning it into something far more disturbing

Two characters so vibrant they step straight off the page

McEwan's brilliance as a novelist lies in his ability to isolate discrete moments in life and invest them with incredible significance

McEwan's style is lean and clear...every sentence feels carefully crafted, the words all perfectly in place

A tightly focused human drama... McEwan gives the reader access to both characters' thoughts with his usual skill, and the comedy of embarrassment, or of the kind of erotic misunderstanding that Milan Kundera used to specialise in, quickly disappears as the marital bed begins to seem more and more ominous... The bedroom scene itself is carried off brilliantly

A fine book, homing in with devastating precision on a kind of Englishness which McEwan understands better than any other living writer, the Englishness of deceit, evasion, repression and regret. In On Chesil Beach McEwan has combined the intensity of his narrowly focused early work with his more expansive later flowered to devastating effect

McEwan is the kind of author who can say more in a sentence than most can say in a chapter...This is a thoughtful book which provokes thought. But more immediately than that, this is a book which, while managing to be very funny, gives us a wonderful and moving portrait of a specific time, and two of its hostages, and of how to make a mess of love

McEwan conveys the near-numinous significance of a single moment with quiet, almost unbearable grace

A heavenly read