Enchanting

Tyler writes stunningly well

Tyler has created a world of imaginary people who are as tangible and as real as one's own friends and relatives

Alternatively lyrical and rambunctiously comic

An almost flawless story of love... Moran emerges as a true hero

Tyler is not merely good, she is wickedly good

Pure magic, a contemporary fairy tale that overflows with affection, mystery and laughter

The brilliance of Patrick McGuinness's writing has made his memories unforgettable to the reader

Brilliant... A book alive with understated yearning

[An] enigmatic novel . . . Deborah Levy's writing is rather like Philip Glass's music . . . mesmerising . . . enigmatic . . . refreshingly original

[A] wistful, fabular new novel . . . Since the 1990s, Deborah Levy's novels have combined a gauzy, episodic quality with pinpoint sensual detail drawn from peripatetic lives, crossing fluently between languages and national borders. Her style is full of gaps and sharp edges, circling around questions of gender and power, inheritance, autonomy and lack . . . The narrative here has a fittingly musical quality, running forward in spurts, pausing, repeating key phrases

Beautifully atmospheric . . . a dazzling portrait of melancholy and renewal . . . Levy is a master novelist and in August Blue, a beguiling story of how identities collide and crack, she shows us what it feels like to be a divided self

Deborah Levy delves into the deepest patterns of family connection and self-invention in August Blue, the riddling, elegant tale of a globe-trotting concert pianist whose subconscious is catching up with her

Deborah Levy's hazy, dreamlike novels, often set in sun-drenched Mediterranean backdrops, are an essential accompaniment to any summer holiday . . . a lyrical, surreal trip of self discovery - one that is full of Levy's wit and curious images

A meditation on artistic creativity that is sensual, enigmatic and strangely addictive

Levy is no stranger to the uncanny. Her novels teem with oddness, with dreamlike, vertiginous scenes

Levy's elegantly ludic investigation into selfhood, mother love and meaning

Levy fans will delight in August Blue’s heady exploration of female creativity

Either/Or is driven by intellectual questions: it's a novel of ideas narrated by a protagonist who, even in her misery, is delightful company.

Elif Batuman's debut novel, The Idiot, is one of the best works of fiction published in the 21st century. Her new novel, Either/Or, picks up where The Idiot left off. . . . Batuman has an extremely keen sense for what makes characters engaging and renders it all in supernaturally observant and funny prose.

Witty, funny and revelatory.

Selin is a disarming narrator, tossing off insights that are revelatory, moving, and laugh-out-loud funny - sometimes all at once - and it's exciting to watch her become the author of her own story. Another delightfully cerebral and bighearted novel from a distinctive voice in contemporary fiction.

In 2018, Elif Batuman's witty campus novel, The Idiot, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. . . . Now, Batuman returns with a sequel, Either/Or, that picks up during Selin's just-as-messy sophomore year. Expect a master course in snappy social observation.

Batuman's latest picks up where her deeply enjoyable 2017 novel The Idiot left off, with Selin now a sophomore at Harvard, trying to untangle all that has happened, and all that could. Besides, Kierkegaard/Elliott Smith vibes will always bring me to the table.

[A] much-anticipated sequel. Either/Or takes places in 1996 and follows Selin throughout her sophomore year as she attempts to make sense of everything that happened the summer before.

Compelling, with witty, hilarious observations on life.

[A] charming and witty new story... We follow Selin...as she navigates the next chapter of her life with hilarious results.

Superb... Either/Or is a smart and highly amusing book, the third by American Turkish author Batuman, firmly establishing her as great new contemporary literary talent.

Surely to be a classic of the genre... [An] impressive feat of being both searingly smart and funny

Batuman has taken what made The Idiot so brilliant, distilled it, and created an equally brilliant new work. Either/Or is unbridled joy.

Funny... Unforgettable... Batuman is particularly good on sex and sexual politics... The star feature is the narration... garrulous, rambunctious... full of baroque riffs and digressions.

A fresh voice is a rare thing, and Elif Batuman is one such.

Either/Or is extremely funny and delightfully ludic, as it probes the very act of reading from the point of view of confused university student Selin.

I was desperately looking forward to Elif Batuman's Either/Or, and it more than lived up to it.

Re-encountering Selin...felt like being reunited with an old friend.

Hilarious.

I greatly enjoyed the comic zing of Elif Batuman's delightful Either/Or

Witty, intelligent and funny... [Selin's] inner monologue is addictive enough to read a thousand more pages of, and I can only cross my fingers that this isn't the last instalment of the series.

Just as funny and self-aware and clever as The Idiot.

Funny, wry and insightful

Laugh out loud…hilarious and thoughtful