Scandal, backstabbing, illicit affairs ... a fab, girlie read!

Mums will be able to see the truth behind this fun novel

A real laugh-out-loud tale

I was drawn to the intellectual speculation and psychological depth of Murdoch’s writing, and the experience of reading her brought the realisation that, for me, thinking would always be the greater part of reading

Female self-worth could have been invented by Jane Austen. No wonder we still value her

It is a sort of a private novel. In the heroine, Anne Elliot, we have glimpses of Austen and what happened to her; the lost romance and the lost youth

Commonly thought of as 'romantic', but try rereading it without being astonished by the comfortableness with which Brontë's characters subject one another to extremes of physical and psychological violence

Lambasted when it came out as irredeemably perverse and, I quote, as practically "French"'

The greatest love story ever told, Heathcliff the hero being a wild, stormy, gothic fellow who will not rest until his beloved Cathy is in his arms again, even though she died some years previously. My favourite moment comes when he bribes the sexton who buried Cathy to bury him next to her, with the sides of their coffins left open, so when they're dug up 50 years hence nobody will know which bones are his, and which are hers

This beautifully designed box-set of four acclaimed novels by the Bronte sisters had me engrossed in Wuthering Heights for the first tie since my school days .... Marvellous

'Ali's observations of Nazneen, her family and friends, is precise, true and can only emanate out of deep empathy, the quality that gives this first novel its warmth and humour...Ali writes with such confidence and with the kind of control a much more experienced novelist would envy'

'Written with effortless style and amazing aplomb for a first-timer. Believe the hype. Monica Ali really is the Next Big Thing. If you buy only one book this year, make it this one'

'Splendid...Daring...Brilliant...Refreshing...A great achievement of the subtlest storytelling'

'The author's powers of observation are magnificent, placing Ali among Britain's greatest writers, never mind young or old'

'Ali aims for the grandest themes of literature: of love, of individuality, of finding and risking the space to grow, of self-sufficiency, of negotiating co-existence...the biggest surprise about Brick Lane is that it works'

'The joy of this book is its marriage of a wonderful writer with a fresh, rich and hidden world. Her achievement is huge. This is a book written with love and compassion'