A searingly beautiful book, at once a sweeping historical epic and an intimate mediation on faith and memory … so intelligent, so compassionate, so moving—and above all so gorgeously written—that it’s impossible to put down. She is an astonishingly good writer.

Recalls Ian McEwan’s Atonement … it is exhilarating to join a novelist working at these bracing heights.

Skibsrud makes places and periods incredibly vivid, dancing through the 20th century and easily linking world events to the personal lives of her characters.

Intricate [and] ambitious … a haunting meditation on responsibility with vivid glimpses of history, and a distinctive and nuanced voice.

Quartet for the End of Time is a brilliant work of art, and it is brilliant in so many ways – its dense, rich, and immaculate prose, its vivid evocation of a watershed period in American history, its high-stakes political and personal drama, and, above all, its intimate and completely compelling portraits of human beings struggling to do the right thing under ambiguous moral circumstances. This wholly realized book has everything I crave in a work of fiction.

Skibsrud reminds us how family members treat each other during political upheaval – and how war is an extension of domestic policy by other means.

This is not a wartime tragic romance, or a simple story of trauma. It is much more affecting than that.

An intelligent and moving examination of the traumas of war. Faulks is as accomplished as ever

It’s a melancholy tale of war, love and loss that will leave you gulping back sobs

Faulks gets better and better with every book. This is surely one of the year’s best novels.

Faulks writes in the grand tradition of realist fiction…Fans of Faulks — and they are legion — will find a great deal to admire and ponder and sorrow at within these pages. Its aspirations are sincere and noble

An elegant, thoughtful novel

One of his most haunting novels

What makes this such an engaging, enjoyable book to read is the depth of the ideas that Faulks explores… As usual, Faulks’ historical research creates a wholly compelling world. Every detail, from glum 1980s New York to the chaos of wartime Belgium, feels fresh and convincing and the characterisation is impeccable

a deeply affecting portrait

It could well be Faulks' magnum opus

expect a passionate story of love lost, delivered by a master storyteller

Deeply philosophical…full of real heart

You’re instantly hooked. There’s a touch of Graham Greene here. The story takes off beautifully.

Faulks, always good, describes the transaction between shrink and sex worker and you’re hooked. A touch of Graham Greene here.

Daring, ambitious and in the end profoundly moving, this is Faulk’s most remarkable book yet.

Baume’s prose has an energy and cadence all of her own: utterly unsentimental, but in its open-hearted, sidelong engagement with the mercurial One Eye and the changing seasons strangely joyous.

Heart-breaking debut from new major talent Sara Baume.

[A] joltingly original debut … Baume charts the growing dependency between these two stray souls with remarkable deftness and almost unbearable poignancy.

Baume’s writing is poetic, delicate and inventive … and despite the undertow of humour, there’s not one whiff of sentimentality – you’re left with the sadness and chronic fearfulness of the truly lonely

[A] skilful debut … lyrical and impressive.

An extraordinarily fresh style …this is an atmospheric novel …Baume is undoubtedly an exceptional new talent.

Ambitious.

There is a lovely, lilting cadence to the novel… Stylishly done…. Winterson manages against the odds to keep us gripped.

Winterson is on sparkling form in this highly intelligent and daringly imaginative reworking of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale... Witty, clever and bold.

Winterson is incapable of being dull, and The Gap Of Time is a fitting addition to her uniquely inventive catalogue.

She deftly captures all the magic and raw emotion of the original.