Coe has huge powers of observation and enormous literary panache

Jonathan Coe's a fine writer who seems to try something new with every book

There are bits that make you laugh out loud and others which make your heart ache

This is a rich novel about a family of landless agricultural workers struggling over four generations… Readers of José Saramago will not be surprised at this original combination of serious denunciation of injustice with sarcasm and humour… Such an allusive novel, with its own orthodoxy in punctuation and subtle shifts of tone, is especially hard to translate. It reads beautifully well

A torrent of storytelling delivered with a lively, humorous immediacy, where his narrative drive and digressive thoughts flow unimpeded by conventional punctuation restraints

It bears the hallmarks of Saramego’s righteous political passions, the acute sense of irony, and genuine love for his land and people, especially the poor. Superb writing and perfect Christmas reading

Raised from the Ground covers the entire 20th-century political history of Portugal in one rich, literary family saga… This lost piece of Saramago’s output is perfectly Portuguese – and well worth a look

While examining serious political issues – and in particular the power of a small group against exploitation and injustice – the tale is also rich with humour, compassion and love. It is, amongst other things, perhaps Saramago's way of showing his admiration for the people with whom he grew up

The narrative voice is unmistakable: a mature, quiet voice, conversational and easy, often ironic or endearingly humorous, that flows forward weaving and interbraiding with itself, wandering but never losing impetus

Saramago presents a deeply detailed analytical portrait of the Portuguese rural landscape as if to impress it on the readers' (and his own) mind forever

it is hard to think of a more imaginative novelist, one whose books are so full of humour and humanity and invention

Solstad, Norway’s most distinguished living writer, is a clear-eyed moralist who takes an existentialist’s interest in the compromises, evasions and accommodations we make to get though life. Wryly humorous and needle-sharp in skewering pretension, Solstad is unlike anyone currently writing in English

Forget the Scandi crime production line and turn to this sly thriller

A wry moral tale exploring the little evasions and compromises of everyday life. Translator Agnes Scott does justice to Solstad’s measured voice

This short-but-striking novel quickly reveals itself to be…crime fiction, yes, but also a subtle and deeply introspective consideration of the inertia of lonely middle-age, its philosophy existentialist in the manner of Jean Paul Sartre, Ingmar Bergman and certain novels of Georges Simenon. The result is a highly complex and accomplished work

Intriguing tale… Solstad expertly navigates the bizarre mind of a clever but lonely man locked in an existentialist nightmare

This is no straightforward crime novel…an exploration of guilt, inaction and moral quandaries