An assured debut from a vital new voice. About family, grief and belonging, Patel weaves an intricate story that will stay with you.

Brilliant.

Incredible.

Effortlessly weaving intricate intergenerational stories across time, Jyoti has written a poignant debut.

A big book, full of assured and affecting writing. . Secrets spill and relationships sour, sacrifices are made and promises are broken, as plot twists propel the narrative forward to a dramatic finale.

One of the best books I've read this year.

A thoughtful meditation on family, grief and the lengths we'll go to protect the ones we love.

A deftly assured debut novel about a fractured family and how words left unspoken can be more devastating than the truth.

Patel's novel revolves around the lingering trauma of bereavement and shows the lengths we go to to protect those closest to us. Sensitively written with a deep, emotional undercurrent.

Highly recommended.

The debut novel from 2021 Merky Books New Writers' Prize winner Jyoti may be one of the best books you read this year. The Things That We Lost is an achingly tender and heartfelt exploration of family, loss, and the lengths to which we go to protect the ones we love... Jyoti Patel is an exciting new writer, deftly exploring deep family intricacies, love and grief in equal measure.

An invigorating narrative centred around family, loss and protection.

There is an immersive and intimate quality about Patel's writing - from its portrayal of London teenage slang to the detailed depiction of British-Gujarati culture. Her characters have a depth that brings a poignant reality to issues around coping with grief, abuse and racial prejudice, and navigating family and friendship dynamics. An enthralling read."

Immeasurably moving, a poignant and touching story about love and family bonds, and an especially tender portrait of a mother and son.

A deeply reflective, searching depiction of grief.

The Things That We Lost took me by the hand and guided me through my worst ever reading slump! Patel writes about the complexities of family life with such wisdom and heart.

Captivating and deeply moving.

Frank, funny and light on its feet, it's a novel about generations, hopes and grief. A writer with a deft turn of phrase.

A beautiful novel; it feels real and honest, with characters that seem to lift off the page and come alive…[it] is a book bursting with love

Sexy, cerebral and moving

'Atmospheric . . . Extraordinary . . . Crewe's taut prose is shot through with descriptive vividness'

Exhilarating . . . An adroit novel of ethics

'Lyrical, piercing . . . The New Life is a fine-cut gem, its sentences buffed to a gleam . . . [Crewe's book] brims with élan and feeling, an ode to eros and a lost world, and a warning about the dangers ahead'

'Crewe deserves applause for his vivid scene-setting . . . There's much to admire in this meticulously researched, boldly envisioned debut'

'Nothing less than remarkable . . . A beautiful, brave book that reminds us of the terrible human cost of bigotry; this is a novel against forgetting'

'Rich and engrossing . . . blending the graceful ambiguity of literary fiction with the deftness of a page-turner . . . A smart, sensual debut'

A few established novelists continue to write first-class literary fiction on LGBTQ themes... The debut novel by Tom Crewe...reveals a new talent in the field. It is underpinned by extensive research... [with] a great story at its heart.

The New Life drives with a satisfying pace and a pleasing sense of both conclusion and open endings... how impressive it is that Crewe has synthesised a coherent and compelling fiction from his elements

Superb . . . Remarkably sensuous and intimate

Crewe demonstrates rare promise in this beautifully crafted story about two real-life pioneers who tried to make a case for homosexuality in Victorian Britain... Crewe brings this era pungently to life

[An] incredibly assured debut... A fresh take on the historical novel, with desire at its heart, written with a charged certainty that the personal is political

A rich, panoramic novel stuffed with vivid characters, heartaches and hazards... [a] brilliant debut

Crewe's beautiful novel is filled with nuance and forensic insight into love. Deftly recreating the atmosphere of 1890s London, The New Life is a tour de force of intelligent and empathetic fiction

A debut of impressive skill... Crewe is a trained historian and it shows: the period detail is exquisite

The novel is full of exquisitely drawn detail, right from the opening scene, making the moral and social dilemmas at the centre of the story dynamic and compelling

[A] pitch-perfect debut novel

Sometimes there comes along a debut novel that feels like an immediate classic. Tom Crewe’s The New Life is just such a book. It’s a beautifully crafted, seductive story about illicit desires in Victorian London

Victory City can, in many ways, be read as an entertaining jaunt through Indian history, though it is history through the kaleidoscopic and sweeping lens of a fairy tale... this brilliantly magical tale.

This sweeping, intricately crafted fairy tale is underscored by very human characters and Rushdie's signature wit.

A grand entertainment, in a tale with many strands, by an ascended master of modern legends.

Rushdie's magical style unfurls wonders.

Rushdie's Victory City is another fabulous novel set in his native India... He's a master who never forgets that the main goal of a storyteller is to entertain rather than educate or pontificate.

Rushdie is, above all else...one of the most powerful defenders of story we have... Victory City is a victory for Rushdie - and for every reader who enters its gates.

Rushdie succeeds in creating a kind of incantatory prose that befits the fabulist nature of the story... he can enchant readers like few other writers.

This is a man at his full-strength, high-tar best - with his deeply humane worldview, his brilliance at set-pieces and, above all, the thrilling wildness of his imagination on irresistible display.

With its carousel of shifting politics and history, Victory City is Rushdie's most textured and triumphant wonder tale yet.

Utterly enchanting.

Rushdie's return to magic, myth, and India's ancient stories is dazzling. With mercurial prose and vivid renderings, Rushdie never loses us in Victory City's convolutions, but instead builds our trust to travail the many grand events of Pampa's imagined empire.

A rich, dramatic saga... The many moments of comedy...show Salman Rushdie's storytelling skills and his endearing sense of playfulness... the main feeling the reader gets is of a storyteller enjoying himself.

Rushdie is an expert at mixology; he's the DJ Shadow of text with references and allusions to high and low culture from Finnegans Wake to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon... a well-told tale that gets bums on seats.

There's a magical thread of storytelling running through the veins of each character we meet in this book... a joy to read.

A work of great imagination... In Victory City the power of the written word and of the storyteller remain triumphant.

Rushdie’s sheer love of fiction is irrepressible.

A wonderfully entertaining literary hybrid

Victory City is Salman Rushdie at his imaginative best… sweeping the reader on a journey that feels epic in a mere 320 pages

From start to finish, the reader or listener can only be impressed by the literary flair of Rushdie's compelling storytelling... Victory City is a joy to listen to.