Fowler consistently scores points with his suave, mocking and ultimately inclusive voice. His latest collection of short stories shows he has lost none of his venom.

Good, gory fun.

Ian McEwan used to mine a similar seam. Fowler does it better.

Incarceration, incantations, revenge, romance and the end of the world - twice. PERSONAL DEMONS are Christopher Fowler's tales of the fantastic and the wilder side of modern urban living. They reflect the rich and various talents of a writer called 'ghoulishly irresistible'.

The writing in the early pages is magnificent… The reader has the confidence of being in the hands of a master storyteller… Barnes has a good sense of what life was like in the Soviet Union. He captures well the black humor, irony and cynicism.

Julian Barnes’ novel deftly evokes the complexity of Shostakovich’s relationship with Stalin and the power of his oeuvre… Thick with period detail… The book returns us to the music itself, that immense 20th-century oeuvre that contains everything but confirms nothing.

Gripping… An intimately illuminating montage of Shostakovich’s life… Immediately engaging.

A novel of deceptive slenderness... You expect nothing less from a writer soaked in Flaubert.

A series of elegant insights into the mind of a brilliant artist… Throughout, Barnes offers a surety of touch that few writers can match.

[A] sad, self-lacerating and darkly funny hybrid of a novel. The Noise of Time is both a burrowing meditation on an artist’s lifelong relationship with totalitarian power, fear and compromise, and a fascinating fictional biography of one of the 20th century’s greatest composers… Barnes is a master.

A profound meditation on power and the relationship of art and power… It presents a life, and refrains from judgment. It is a masterpiece of sympathetic understanding… I don’t think [Barnes] has written a finer, more truthful or more profound book.

The skilled novelist here brings alive not just the political turmoil that surrounded Shostakovich, but his love for his wives, his love for his children, a vivid counterpoint of artistic freedom and political oppression – the eloquent conjuring of one glass of vodka clinking against another.

This is a slim novel about the big things: art, fear, Power…history’s farcical, tragic repetitions. It is also quite excellent.

Julian Barnes takes an Orwellian turn for his first novel since winning the 2011 Man Booker Prize.

The Noise of Time looks to enthral us with its tale of compromise, cowardice and courage in Stalinist Russia.

It is being hailed as his best novel yet.

An imagining of Shostakovich’s life, art, power and politics.

One for fans of literary fiction and Barnes too.

[It is] reflective, smart and eminently readable.

Set to enthral us with its tale of compromise, cowardice and courage… Pick it up as soon as you can.

A series of elegant meditations.

Moving and often genuinely tense—as well as richly informative.

[It is] full of playful wit and understatement… A very short book but it contains more to enjoy and chew over than most novels three times its length.

But The Noise of Time shares with Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata - another text which has at its centre the tyranny of music and its physiologically devastating potential – the capacity for evocation of music-making that is worthy of the real thing.

A brilliant portrait of an artist trying not to sign away his soul.

At his thought-provoking best… A story about the collision of Art and Power, about human compromise, human cowardice and human courage. It is the work of a master.

[The Noise of Time is] disturbing, darkly comical and an ideal intellectual palate-cleanser to kick off the new year.

[A] densely written, masterfully told tale.

A new, short, highly concentrated novel…meditating in brief paragraphs on the art and compromise with power over 50 years in the life of the composer Shostakovich.

Moving and often genuinely tense.

A brilliant reflection of one man’s consciousness, amid the fear and terror of authoritarian rule. Completely gripping and informative and entertaining, it is a classic Barnes concoction.

Pulsing with riffs on love, music and honesty both personal and artistic, it depicts a man who knows he’s a coward, even if his scores are courageous… Barnes also captures the farcical side of life in Soviet Russia.

A tour de force by a master novelist at the top of his game.

Barnes’s prose is thoughtful and elegant.

A great novel.

Barnes pulls together all the strands of an artlessly diffuse and meticulously imagined portrait of life under tyranny. It is masterfully done.

A distinctive and, as always with Barnes, highly readable marriage of suave execution and chilly, grown-up subject matter.

With its three-act structure, dramatic tension, lyrical passages and recurring motifs, the novel has an operatic quality. Offering an intimate portrait of the artist and an overview of Russia’s troubled past, it’s a compelling read.

You’ll love this.

The Noise of Time is a brilliant impersonation, both as a novel and as a portrayal of the “real” historical Shostakovich.

A gripping story, a fascinating portrait of a period of history, and a brilliantly in-depth character study… Beautifully written… Philosophically and intellectually enriching.

A thoughtful, moving read about integrity, compromise and courage.

Barnes has some striking setpieces in this probing, intellectually robust novel.

The fear, danger and paranoia felt in those times rise memorably from the pages.

Barnes stands out, so vivid are his images and so poignant his insights. His works stand among the classics of the postmodern era, and for good reason.

A marvellous meditation on the Cold War era and particularly the battles of conscience that besiege a man living under tyranny.

The tone is intimate and aphoristic, the paragraphs succinct.

A fascinating account of the life of Dimitri Shostakovich… Perceptive, symbolic… The Noise of Time is an essential read, and not only for musicians.

A finely-tuned masterpiece... Barnes' prose is supreme.

An intimate portrait of a public intellectual living in a totalitarian atmosphere… Immersive… The Noise of Time presents a compelling story in engaging and original prose.

Kaleidoscopic portrait… Barnes deftly constructs a life history... A masterfully told story of survival. *****

Beautifully composed.

Without a doubt, Barnes has succeeded the high expectations of the people who waited with bated breath for the release of The Noise of Time. In a work that feels both original and authentic, he encourages us to consider the importance of art, in whatever form, and the influence it can have on us all.

Barnes at his best...a poignant fictional recreation of the artistic agonies of the composer Shostakovich.

A very sensitive account of how art can be in conflict with naked political power.

A book I’d like to tuck myself away for a day to read. It’s short in length but by all accounts big on ideas and power.

His Dmitri Shostakovich is completely believable.

[A] brilliant study of the relationship between art and an oppressive regime… A compelling depiction of the country’s history and a richly imagined close-up of the artist.

A poignant and thoughtful portrait of the persecuted artist.

[It is] elegant.

Another Brilliant reinvention by Barnes.

My favourite book of this year is The Noise of Time.

His best for ages. It is gripping, outward-looking, generous with plot and atmosphere and far beyond the powers of McEwan, Amis, Ishiguro, Rushidie et al…. This book grabbed me by the nuts like nothing of his since Starting at the Sun.

[A] haunting novel on the agonies of Shostakovitch under Stalin and his successors… I recommended it to a friend who for years was one of the great reviewers at the Washington Post. His reply: “It’s an extraordinary book. It’s a book that makes me wish I were reviewing again.”

A mini-masterpiece.

An elegant portrait of Shostakovitch.

Written with Barnes’ characteristic low-key elegance, the book becomes a meditation on artistic integrity and its limits in a brutal regime

An impressive narrative of personal integrity.

As a portrait of the composer and his time this book is a complete success… The Noise of Time is also convincing in the details… A book in which a certain grim humour is never too far away.

[A] gem of a novel.

A compelling read that combines sharp insights, lyrical passages and dramatic tension.

Black humour and retrospective anguish prevail in Julian Barnes’s latest novel.

A beautifully told story, this is subtle and powerful.

This small novel is an elegant and unflinching account of a life lived under extreme pressure, during Stalin’s Great Terror. Julian Barnes fleshes out the life of the composer Shostakovich whose life is under threat. A powerful story, well-crafted and beautifully written about the humanity and torments of a creative soul… An informative, thought provoking read.

An immense emotional and intellectual punch.