hilariously entertaining, this is a truly inspired story ... a timely satire written with great comic flair and heart

The brilliance of Maupin is his mingling of high camp with tragedy and deep feeling – all with a miraculously light touch

A proper Maupin-esque swansong – moving, funny and obscene. We expect nothing less

Christopher Isherwood was absolutely correct when he declared Maupin to be the Dickens of the modern world

The Tales of the City sequence has been one of the literary menus plaisirs of the past decade - Maupin with his elegance and charm has found a place among the classics

May well be the funniest series of novels currently in progress...Maupin's ear for dialogue is as acute as his feeling for characterisation, and the net result is as engaging a read as you are likely to encounter

Comedy in its most classical form...some of the sharpest and most speakable dialogue you are ever likely to read

A moving and lyrical story . . . wise, perceptive, warm and heartbreaking, this is a story that lingers long in the mind

[Foulds] matches his flair for rhythm with a skilful ownership of both his prose and a complex narrative. All delivered with a minimalist restraint.

There's much to admire in this novel. Foulds has a searching eye for detail and an apparently helpless compulsion to wring imagery from his subject.

Foulds’s writing invites...returning to consider each layer of the composition...there is a prismatic quality to the language which allows various levels of interpretation to be separated out and refined.

Wonderfully enticing.

Individual scenes are often gripping, shocking or moving.

The bloody horrors of conflict are captured with visceral aplomb in this fine, minimalist novel.

Some of the most vividly evoked battle scenes I've read – he doesn't shy away from taking risks … chilling and touching all at the same time.

Foulds has the literary intelligence to turn the commonplace on its head.

A high-class thriller … Foulds has a literary novelist's feel for [Sicily's] harsh beauty.

Foulds’ prose is superb… It reads like Catch-22 written by Evelyn Waugh.

It’s an ambitious book and the writer relates his story with poetic precision