Flagg is a writer of great warmth and wisdom... A richly imagined family saga

More heart than a shopful of Valentine cards and some absolutely wonderful characters... A warm, funny riff on family and identity

Wonderfully entertaining

Good fun... Southern manners, indomitable broads, smelling salts and rip-roaring adventure

A wonderfully warm and moving read

Overwhelmingly heart-warming. [Flagg’s] talent for storytelling radiates from the page, along with her ability to create quirky characters who are both immensely entertaining and reassuringly human. A thoroughly enjoyable tale of girl power

A light-hearted and humorous read… Fans of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café will also surely be delighted by Flagg’s depiction of small-town southern America.

Pynchon leaves the rest of the American literary establishment at the starting gate...the range over which he moves is extraordinary, not simply in terms of ideas explored but also in the range of emotions he takes you through

The most important and mysterious writer of his generation

A warm and joyous read. There is softness about this book, but also a tinge of melancholy

[Vann is] such a fine craftsman.

Strange and sad and desperately readable

A kind of modern fairy tale, one laced with treachery and trials and the greatest demon of all to battle, the past ... Vann’s novels are striking, uncompromising portraits of American life; here is another exceptional example.

By pulling no punches in this explicit exploration of family, forgiveness, duty, acceptance, parent-child relationships, and what constitutes abuse, Vann has outdone himself.

A 12-year-old’s fragile world, mesmerizing innocence, and emerging adolescence are the heart of this alluring novel … Her fresh voice rings true … Since electrifying the literary world five years ago with his debut novel, Legend of a Suicide, Vann has racked up an astonishing number of international awards. This lovely, wrenching novel should add to that list.

Genuinely thought-provoking.

Vann’s deceptively simple style conceals the story’s raw emotional power.