Author:Laila Lalami

When a young man is given the chance to rewrite his future, he doesn't realize the price he will pay for giving up his past...
Casablanca's stinking alleys are the only home that nineteen-year-old Youssef El-Mekki has ever known. Raised by his mother in a one-room home, he dreams of escape - until, one day, the father he thought dead turns out to be very much alive, and whisks him from the slums into the luxurious life of Casablanca's elite. But as he leaves the poverty of his childhood behind him, he comes up against a starkly un-glittering reality...
An extraordinary début
—— Sunday ExpressA minor masterpiece
—— Time OutBoyne should be congratulated for his spirited take on an old theme
—— GuardianBoyne is a skilful storyteller, expertly weaving differing stories together
—— Sunday TribuneA great novel ... It widens our own humanity
—— GuardianThere's no funnier monster in modern literature than poor, doomed Humbert Humbert. Going to hell in his company would always be worth the ride
—— IndependentRedeeming, spendid, headlong, endlessly comic and evocative
—— John UpdikeRapturous ... incendiary
—— Time OutWarmed by the tender characterisation that has made Jilly Cooper a national treasure
—— CountrylifeJust the thing for a wet winter weekend
—— IndependentUnrivalled joy
—— TatlerA classic romp through the world of horse racing. Guilty pleasures rarely come as delicious as this
—— ElleJilly's descriptions of the glorious Cotswold countryside are some of the most lyrical ever written and her comedies of manners rival Nancy Mitford, if not Jane Austen
—— Daily MailAs plots go you can't get more charming than this
—— Daily ExpressThe narrative zips along, pierced with her characteristically brilliant ear for dialogue and empathy for human relationships of all kinds... You won't be able to put it down once you get going
—— Daily MailA rollicking fantasy
—— Horse and HoundI loved it
—— Rosie BoycottSit back and enjoy the ride as the queen of the bonkbuster, Jilly Cooper, delivers another fabulously entertaining saga
—— Good HousekeepingSharp, funny and touching
—— Times Literary SupplementThe Spoiler - set in the halcyon days before phone hacking - was one of the funniest and sharpest fleet street novels in years.
—— David Robson , Sunday Telegraph SevenMcAfee - herself a former journalist - evokes two distinct eras and styles of journalism, that of fearless frontline reportage and that of its successor: style-oriented, celebrity-obsessed features coverage... This is a pacy read that leaves little doubt in the reader's mind that one school of journalism deserves more mourning than the other
—— Alex Clark , GuardianMarvellous satire...the novel is cunningly plotted and satisfyingly nuanced
—— Independent on SundayIf the peek into the world of newspaper journalism afforded by the Leveson inquiry has you gasping for more, then this timely paperback release is perfect...a fiendishly funny (and frighteningly plausible) world of fiddled expenses and suspect tactics
—— ShortlistThoroughly enjoyable behind-the-scenes expose of an ambitious celebrity journalist's attempt to nail the scoop of her life
—— MetroThis is the paperback edition. The hardback appeared before the News Corporation bosses were dragged into the Commons. McAfee was either very prescient or close to the action, holding her fictional hacks to account for printing false stories gleaned from disreputable sources
—— Julia Fernandez , Time Out