Giorgio Bassani is one of the great witnesses of this century, and one of its great artists

Powerful new translations . . . Bassani began as a poet, and McKendrick's redelivery of this taut uncompromising fiction reveals resonance and generosity

No one else writes about time like this. Bassani is deeply unsettling and yet a joy to read.

My ideal read; mystery, love heart-break and joy - I couldn't put it down

A wonderful story full of family drama and mystery. Beautiful and rich writing, wonderful nature, and loads of secrets and intrigue - this book has it all

I loved this book. I kept snatching a few more pages whenever I could. It has left me wanting to head to warmer climes and take part in the grape and olive harvests. Well I can dream can't I?

Carol will take you away as you become immersed in the unusual life of the Cambon family, where no one is quite who they first seemed to be

Her beautifully written prose propels the reader into a sensory haven of fragrant olive groves, rattling cicadas and bejewelled dragonflies . . . Carol Drinkwater is an incredibly talented writer, with a real skill for weaving an engaging story

The Forgotten Summer is literary, well researched and hugely satisfying to read. It explores not just love, but searing grief, hatred, deceit, joy and despair, providing a richness of experience for the reader . . . wonderfully atmospheric writing

A beautiful, atmospheric story of loss, family drama and mystery'

An absolutely outstanding book which I couldn't put down until I finished at 4.30 a.m. Look no further for an intelligently written book with twists and turns I hadn't seen coming. Epically excellent. 5*

Emotional and Absorbing - get Lost in a Beautiful Book

Thought-provoking, and at times brutal, this thriller will surely be the basis of many discussions about the nature of society and the times we live in

Peyton Marshall is a writer of intelligence and keen observation with a great future. GOODHOUSE is a startling debut. In James, she has created a compelling and convincing hero for the all-too-probable dark times ahead

An eerie, compelling novel, its deceptively simple language is a 'slight rush of words' which hold much more than they seem capable of containing...This novel is about the need to create a story we can live with when the real story cannot be told...

Strout uses a different voice herself in this novel: a spare simple one, elegiac in tone that sometimes brings to mind Joan Didion's

This is a glorious novel, deft, tender and true. Read it

An exquisitely written story...a brutally honest, absorbing and emotive read

Honest, intimate and ultimately unforgettable

Sympathetic, subtle and sometimes shocking

Plain and beautiful...Strout writes with an extraordinary tenderness and restraint

One of this year's best novels: an intense, beautiful book about a mother and a daughter, and the difficulty and ambivalence of family life

Elizabeth Strout's prose is like words doing jazz

Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge is the best novel I've read for some time

An exquisite novel of careful words and vibrating silences

In this quiet, well observed novel, a mother and her mysteriously ill daughter rebuild their relationship in a New York hospital room. Deft and tender, it lingers in the mind

A worthy follow-up to Olive Kitteridge

I loved My Name is Lucy Barton: she gets better with each book

The standout novel of the year - a visceral account of the relations between mother and daughter and the unreliability of memory

In a brilliant year for fiction, I've admired the nuanced restraint of Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton

Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton shouldn't work, but its frail texture was a triumph of tenderness, and sent me back to her excellent Olive Kitteridge

A rich account of a relationship between mother and daughter, the frailty of memory and the power of healing

This physically slight book packs an unexpected emotional punch

A novel offering more hope

My Name Is Lucy Barton intrigues and pierces with its evocative, skin-peeling back remembrances of growing up dirt-poor.

Masterly