A masterpiece…a terrific novel, humming with ideas, knowing asides, shafts of sunlight, shouts of laughter and moments of almost unbearable tragedy

Compelling...profoundly moving

A pleasure from start to finish…WHERE MY HEART USED TO BEAT is that rare book, a page-turning read that also has a significant intellectual and emotional charge.

There is everything here: love, loss, death, war, history, memory, ideas, travel, friendship, rivalry, chance – and sex. It comes in an immaculately crafted package that continues an ingenious dual-timeline with plot twists that serve the reader with the exact impression of what it might be to live the life of the novel’s gimlet-eyed and engaging narrator, Dr Robert Hendricks

Combining as it does the cultural narrative of a complex century forsaken by God and certainty, a serious investigation into the vulnerability of the human mind and an old-fashioned – in the best sense – story of love and war, this is an ambitious, demanding and profoundly melancholy book

a powerful and moving novel

This is not a wartime tragic romance, or a simple story of trauma. It is much more affecting than that.

An intelligent and moving examination of the traumas of war. Faulks is as accomplished as ever

It’s a melancholy tale of war, love and loss that will leave you gulping back sobs

Faulks gets better and better with every book. This is surely one of the year’s best novels.

Faulks writes in the grand tradition of realist fiction…Fans of Faulks — and they are legion — will find a great deal to admire and ponder and sorrow at within these pages. Its aspirations are sincere and noble

An elegant, thoughtful novel

One of his most haunting novels

What makes this such an engaging, enjoyable book to read is the depth of the ideas that Faulks explores… As usual, Faulks’ historical research creates a wholly compelling world. Every detail, from glum 1980s New York to the chaos of wartime Belgium, feels fresh and convincing and the characterisation is impeccable

a deeply affecting portrait

It could well be Faulks' magnum opus

expect a passionate story of love lost, delivered by a master storyteller

Deeply philosophical…full of real heart

You’re instantly hooked. There’s a touch of Graham Greene here. The story takes off beautifully.

Faulks, always good, describes the transaction between shrink and sex worker and you’re hooked. A touch of Graham Greene here.

Daring, ambitious and in the end profoundly moving, this is Faulk’s most remarkable book yet.

Spins through an exhilarating array of genres. The sensational opening chapter enmeshes the reader in a rollercoaster ride of tragedy, comedy, thriller, fantasy, chicklit, plus a few pages of raunchy sex

The Gap of Time takes nothing away from The Winter's Tale. If anything it might add to it, or at least to its resonance and mystery. It is an impressive achievement, especially as Winterson manages the contradictions of comedy and tragedy in a way which suits both their modern likelihood and their moral implications

A witty retelling.

Her new story retains the essence of Shakespeare, but filters his comedy and sentiment through feminism and technology.

Filled with her wit and seriously thought-provoking ideas, Winterson’s writing is a pleasure… This is a well told, beautiful, magical and wonderfully evocative story which resonates with our contemporary lives.

Vibrates with echoes of Shakespeare’s original.

Ambitious.

There is a lovely, lilting cadence to the novel… Stylishly done…. Winterson manages against the odds to keep us gripped.

Winterson is on sparkling form in this highly intelligent and daringly imaginative reworking of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale... Witty, clever and bold.

Winterson is incapable of being dull, and The Gap Of Time is a fitting addition to her uniquely inventive catalogue.

She deftly captures all the magic and raw emotion of the original.