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On Green Dolphin Street
On Green Dolphin Street
Dec 8, 2025 5:17 PM

Author:Sebastian Faulks

On Green Dolphin Street

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'Compelling . . . Faulks has become an international sensation' GUARDIAN

'Performs like an elegant melody' OBSERVER

'Tense and affecting . . . A modern epic' SPECTATOR

Life at the British Embassy in Washington in 1959 is awash with parties, martinis, jazz, and for Mary van der Linden, the kind of happiness she has always dreamt of. With her diplomat husband Charlie busy and the children off at boarding school, she feels listless until news reporter Frank Renzo enters their lives. And when Frank and Mary begin a torrid affair, their passion will force an impossible decision.

Set between Washington, New York and Moscow, On Green Dolphin Street, is a masterful exploration of Cold War chaos, and devastating love.

Reviews

Vivid and very real . . . Packed full of humanity and otters, plus a good mystery too!

—— Sally Page, bestselling author of The Keeper of Stories

Uplifting, heartwarming and wonderful, an utterly charming story - I loved it! Another gorgeous book from Hazel Prior to lose yourself in!

—— Faith Hogan, author of The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club

Life and Otter Miracles is a warm-hearted and uplifting story which celebrates the power of nature and the resilience of the human spirit. With a cast of beautifully-drawn characters and a delightful small-town mystery as its heart, this is a story that readers will be sure to fall in love with. Otterly charming!

—— Freya Sampson, author of The Last Library

A joyous addition for bookshelves everywhere. Nature lovers and readers looking for a warm-hearted, touching read are sure to love it as much as I did.

—— Phaedra Patrick, author of The Library of Lost and Found

An otter JOY! Amazing characters, cute otters, clever plot, emotion, the beauty and perils of the countryside beautifully evoked. If you want to be happy, read this book!

—— Tracy Rees, author of Amy Snow

I love everything Hazel writes. She creates worlds I want to live in, with people I would be friends (and enemies) with. The Tiptree's raspberry jam on artisan sourdough toast of a comfort read.

—— Ericka Waller, author of Dog Days

Completely absorbing . . . Stunning scenery, intriguing characters and of course, those wonderful otters. A life-enhancing book that constantly tugs at the heartstrings but still overflows with joy. I adored it!

—— Celia Anderson, author of 59 Memory Lane

Warm and uplifting . . . gorgeously comforting

—— Woman

Warm, moving and escapist in the best feel-good way, I loved everything about this novel. Another incredible read from Prior.

—— Samantha Tonge, author of Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage

A charming tale

—— Woman's Own

Praise for Hazel Prior's previous novels

—— :

Beautifully written by a born storyteller.

—— Lorraine Kelly

This gorgeous book has everything! Mysteries, misunderstandings, arguments, reconciliations, kindness, love and lots of PENGUINS!

—— Clare Pooley, author of The Authenticity Project

Funny, bittersweet and wholly original.

—— Daily Express

A touching, uplifting tale.

—— Jo Whiley, BBC Radio 2 Book Club

A glorious, life-affirming story. I read it in a day.

—— Clare Mackintosh, bestselling author of I Let You Go

Gorgeously comforting, this book will remind you of the healing power of nature

—— Woman's Weekly

Wonderful characters

—— Candis

This slender book is a powerful tribute to its author's 'hero': her clever, undaunted mother.

—— Harper's Bazaar

I absolutely loved it. A moving portrayal of daughterhood, achingly precise on memory and grief, and suffused with warmth and love.

—— Megan Hunter, author of The Harpy

Wonderful... Through The Hero of This Book, McCracken extends her mother's heaven to our memories. I'll be thinking about her with great affection for a very long time.

—— Washington Post

Gorgeous... Not a word is wasted.

—— Jack Edwards on YouTube

There is a welcome levity to his prose here as he riffs on myth-making, culture clashes or the nature of storytelling itself.

—— Daily Mail

Victory City has the tone of mischief Rushdie is always able to channel into his bright, fluid storytelling. Amid all the courtly intrigue and fantastic realism woven through the extensive cast of characters, fleeting dashes of wicked humour sit up and pierce the tale delectably. Rushdie's sharp, camouflaged satire speaks to everything, from religious extremism to greed to patriarchal misogyny. It all just seems to unspool from him without effort.

—— Irish Independent

The best thing Salman Rushdie has written in years... One of the richest and most exuberant books he has given us.

—— Scotsman

Rushdie's creation is vivid, compelling, and entirely his own.

—— Daily Mirror

Salman Rushdie is a genius and I wish he could read me a story - or a chapter of his book - every night before bed. The scale and scope of his intellect and his imagination is googolplex.

—— A.M. Homes, author of THE UNFOLDING

It does not resemble any other novel I could name. A major accomplishment by one of our greatest living writers.

—— Michael Cunningham, author of THE HOURS

No one, and I mean no one, can bring an entire world to life... like Salman Rushdie.

—— Gary Shteyngart, author of OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS

Mesmerising and soul-stirring. Victory City is an epic tribute to the power of words as well as the resilience of women. Rushdie is without a peer in proving that literature soars above tyranny and bigotry, and imagination roars louder than censorship

—— Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees

This is Salman Rushdie at his most virtuosic.

—— Hari Kunzru, author of THE IMPRESSIONIST

It will show you the adult world in a whole new light. Only a master storyteller can do that.

—— Jarvis Cocker, author of GOOD POP, BAD POP

A storyteller who reminds that death may take away a lot of things, but never the power of our words.

—— Colum McCann, author of LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN

A capacious and sweeping telling in which writing about the past is a way of also staring dead on at the present.

—— Natasha Trethewey, author of NATIVE GUARD

Victory City stands out as one of the year's literary highlights... that feels like an instant classic.

—— Bea Carvalho, Head of Fiction at Waterstones

Rushdie is an assured storyteller at the height of his powers, revealing once again how important India is as a fount of his imagination.

—— Conversation

Victory City is one of Rushdie's very best novels. It is also a luminous, italicised, vibrant reminder of the possibilities of free expression and of the untrammelled imagination. In this instance, the medium is indeed the message.

—— Tortoise Media

Victory City can, in many ways, be read as an entertaining jaunt through Indian history, though it is history through the kaleidoscopic and sweeping lens of a fairy tale... this brilliantly magical tale.

—— Irish Independent

This sweeping, intricately crafted fairy tale is underscored by very human characters and Rushdie's signature wit.

—— Culture Whisper, *Books to Look Out For 2023*

A grand entertainment, in a tale with many strands, by an ascended master of modern legends.

—— Kirkus Review

Rushdie's magical style unfurls wonders.

—— Washington Post

Rushdie's Victory City is another fabulous novel set in his native India... He's a master who never forgets that the main goal of a storyteller is to entertain rather than educate or pontificate.

—— New York Journal of Books

Rushdie is, above all else...one of the most powerful defenders of story we have... Victory City is a victory for Rushdie - and for every reader who enters its gates.

—— Harper's Bazaar

Rushdie succeeds in creating a kind of incantatory prose that befits the fabulist nature of the story... he can enchant readers like few other writers.

—— Literary Review

This is a man at his full-strength, high-tar best - with his deeply humane worldview, his brilliance at set-pieces and, above all, the thrilling wildness of his imagination on irresistible display.

—— Reader's Digest

With its carousel of shifting politics and history, Victory City is Rushdie's most textured and triumphant wonder tale yet.

—— Hindu

Utterly enchanting.

—— Eastern Eye

Rushdie's return to magic, myth, and India's ancient stories is dazzling. With mercurial prose and vivid renderings, Rushdie never loses us in Victory City's convolutions, but instead builds our trust to travail the many grand events of Pampa's imagined empire.

—— Esquire

A rich, dramatic saga... The many moments of comedy...show Salman Rushdie's storytelling skills and his endearing sense of playfulness... the main feeling the reader gets is of a storyteller enjoying himself.

—— Tablet, *Novel of the Week*

Rushdie is an expert at mixology; he's the DJ Shadow of text with references and allusions to high and low culture from Finnegans Wake to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon... a well-told tale that gets bums on seats.

—— National

There's a magical thread of storytelling running through the veins of each character we meet in this book... a joy to read.

—— UK Press Syndication

A work of great imagination... In Victory City the power of the written word and of the storyteller remain triumphant.

—— NB

Rushdie’s sheer love of fiction is irrepressible.

—— Daily Telegraph, *Books of the Year*

A wonderfully entertaining literary hybrid

—— The Times, *Books of the Year*

Victory City is Salman Rushdie at his imaginative best… sweeping the reader on a journey that feels epic in a mere 320 pages

—— i, *Books of the Year*
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