An ambitious narrative that is stark, serene and contemplative...[it] achieves the ultimate goal of any writer: it makes us pause and think, and think again

it's the only fiction I've read in the last few years that has left me open-mouthed

Writing of awesome power. In a profound meditation on cruelty, pity, belief, art, science, hope, love and mortality, the novel's truths settle in your consciousness, perhaps never to be forgotten

JM Ledgard's eclectic and philosophical novel ranges far wider than this latest manifestation of the 'war on terror'... Ledgard creates a prose poem of ideas and images that hops and flits with inspiration

Submergence succeeds, and is immensely pleasurable, because Ledgard's magnetic north - though incessantly insisted on - is such an uncanny, inhuman and deathly place

From the icy depths of the Greenland Sea to the sweltering plains of a Somali Islamist training camp, Ledgard's masterful second novel is a beautifully crafted, rigorously researched, and deeply affecting love story

Immensely powerful

A wonderfully funny, original novel ... joyous and life-affirming

This small but perfectly formed third novel from Kitty Aldridge is over too soon but is impressively accomplished, nailing the distinctive voice of its protagonist… Inventive coming-of-age tale

Kitty Aldridge’s latest novel mixes pathos and bathos in industrial quantities…he [Lee Hart] is an immensely likeable protagonist and Aldridge has absolutely captured his engagingly open inner voice

An uplifting tale of life after death. Dead good

Wonderful… I am completely convinced by Lee and drawn along with his narrative voice which Kitty Aldridge has pitched to perfection… Kitty has taken a taboo subject and achieved that fine balance, writing engagingly and openly, and with great sensitivity and humour about something most of us just don't like to think or talk about

Aldridge’s writing is a rare find: startlingly original without being showy, skilfully crafted but not selfconsciously literary, a genuine, honest voice… Harrowing and hilarious, profound but unpretentious, this book conjures up a compelling world and an eminently likeable protagonist. For all the dead bodies and thwarted lives, it is surprisingly uplifting