Leaves its traces in the air long after you've put it away

A complex tapestry of great subtlety. Lively writes so well, savouring the words as she goes

Lively's ability to bring her character and the world she inhabits into full technicolour is beautiful. This is a unique book about a fascinating unpredictable woman way ahead of her time and yet absolutely of her time

Very clever: evocative, thought-provoking and hangs on the mind long after it is finished

'Deeply researched, dashingly written...this is a a terrific performance'

'As all-conqueringly glamorous an account as Alexander himself'

'The acclaimed chronicler of Ancient Greek warriors tells of the mightiest of all...Pressfield succeeds quite brilliantly where a lesser novelist might stumble, enabling the legend to meet the man... [he] excels in depicting the blood, guts, glory and shame'

An important as well as a thrilling work of art

A moving and powerful novel in which Dunmore employs all her celebrated descriptive and narrative skills...beautiful

A harrowing, urgent narrative of cold, starvation and the battle to survive

It is quite outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth... We are lucky to have this book

The facts surrounding the discovery of this book are as remarkable as its contents are magnificent... A triumph of indomitability and a masterwork of literary accomplishment

Deftly translated by Sandra Smith, this is possibly the most devastating indictment of French manners and morals since Madame Bovary, as hypnotic as Proust at the biscuit tin, as gruelling as Genet on the prowl. Irène Nemirovsky is, on this evidence, a novelist of the very first order, perceptive to a fault and sly in her emotional restraint

An heroic attempt to write a novel about a nightmare in which the author is entirely embedded

Read this haunting novel, then read [Nemirovsky’s] letters in this edition to feel the full force of the work

While marked by poppy wearing and memorial ceremonies, the First World War is also sustained through family history, handed down from one generation to the next. No book better articulates the impact of this narrative than Stephen Faulks’ Birdsong.

A truly amazing read

I’d never read such descriptive literature, and couldn’t sleep at night for thinking about what I’d just read. His [Faulks] portrayal of terror on the battlefield is so powerful

My all-time favourite book