Author:Herman Melville
In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound enquiry into character, faith and the nature of perception.
There's heartbreak, there's joy, there are parts where you cry - and it's very high quality writing. Well done!
—— Margaret Atwood , Giller Prize Jury remarksWitty and wise, light and dark, with many unexpected moments.
—— Colm TóibínGood to a Fault is one of those novels you want to tell people about. It's unpretentious and affecting, with characters to remember and themes that linger and resound
—— Meg Wolitzer, author of The Ten-Year NapThe Canadian writer Marina Endicott's second novel, Good to a Fault, won a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and one can see why. It's just as funny and absorbing as her debut, Open Arms.
—— Patrick GaleSensuous... A steaming brew of vampires and witches
—— Los Angeles TmesA story of love and fatherhood that almost seems Hardyesque...set against the bucolic splendour of flashback scenes...[Owen's] kidnapping of his children may be shocking but it feels somehow legitimate, and his animal hunger for fatherhood is moving...Landed is a turbulent, haunting story, which forces the reader to examine different perceptions of goodness and responsibility. It explores the fragility of family life, using this to reflect on the opposition between society and the natural world. Pears's prose is quietly mellifluous, particularly when evoking the pastoral, and the multi-perspective device supports the plot well...Landed draws us painfully into Owen's predicament, his teetering between salvation and disaster.
—— Times Literary SupplementA shocking book...irresistibly readable
—— New York Review of BooksDarkly impressive
—— The TimesA superb achievement: his prose has instant, lucid beauty and his narrative voice has a perfect poise and certainty. His account of deprivation and survival is marvellously sure, and the imaginative alignment of his story is exactly right
—— Tom PaulinIt is difficult to fault the writing or the construction of this eerie fable
—— Sunday TimesThe Kindly Ones has been hailed as the return of the great European realistic novel.
—— Sunday HeraldI dedicated most of the summer to Jonathan Littell's much-praised, internationally bestselling blockbuster and loved almost every minute of it...a magnificent achievement
—— James Delingpole , SpectatorAn immense novel...The depth of detail is astounding and authentic
—— Doug Kemp , Historical Novels ReviewA masterpiece
—— Antony Beevor , Seven Magazine, Sunday Telegraph Books of the YearAn extremely disturbing novel
—— Toby Clements , Daily TelegraphA remarkable and controversial novel
—— Jason Burke , ObserverJonathan Littell veers between brilliance and bathos...
—— Sally Cousins , The TelegraphGrotesque, dismaying, chilling in its focus on the fine detail of barbarism, this epic of evil is also addictively readable
—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent on SundayCompelling... utterly engaging... for anyone whose interest in his subjects is great to enough to bear their unflinching portrayal The Kindly Ones is an essential novel
—— Chris Power , The TimesIt's an amazing picture of evil, wonderfully written (and very well translated from the original French by Charlotte Mandell), and left me feeling as though I had supped with the damned
—— Jane Knight , The Times