Quindlen invests her tale with rare pathos and even rarer psychological acumen ... the honesty of her storytelling is exemplary

Quindlen has got so deeply inside her characters that they gave me nightmares

Don't miss Anna Quindlen's compassionate portrayal of a violent marriage

It is rare to find a novel at once tender and taut, full of insight, yet with a darkness at its centre - and that's what makes it a gripping read

Beautifully paced - keeps the reader anxiously turning the pages.

I loved it. Qualities and shades of love are this writer's strong suit, and she has the unusual talent for writing about them with so much truth and heart that one is carried away on a tidal wave of involvement and concern

Engrossing - compassionate and tense.

Writing with great verve and charm, Belgium-based Unigwe describes the parameters of a half-life where dreams of big houses and plait extensions help to block out a grubby reality

Haunting story... Sometimes a novel can tell you more than any amount of documentary journalism.

Sobering... the humiliations endured by the quartet are forcefully driven home by Unigwe.

A very superior work of women's fiction... an exceedingly skilled analysis of the relationship between different generations of women and how the power shifts as the old, as they must, get old and the young move on... it is a story told beautifully

The legendary Ms Trollope triumphs yet again, with her latest slick of classy chick-lit

This thoroughly engaging, intelligent, literate novel

The brilliantly observed portrayal of family life is wonderfully compelling - and a story many will be able to identify with. ****