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The Double
The Double
Mar 12, 2026 7:59 AM

Author:José Saramago,Margaret Jull Costa

The Double

Watching a rented video, Tertuliano Maximo Afonso is shocked to notice that one of the actors is identical to him in every physical detail. He embarks on a secret quest to find his double and sets in motion a train of events that he cannot control. Saramago's novel explores the nature of individuality and examines the fear and insecurity that arise when our singularity comes under threat, when even a wife cannot tell the original from the imposter...

Reviews

Quite unlike anything else

—— London Review of Books

A Borgesian fable with a marvellous flavour all its own

—— Phillip Hensher, Books of the Year , Spectator

A comic and profound exploration of the self... A uniquely seductive writer

—— Daily Telegraph

The Double is Saramago at his most practised and polished. It is philosophy and thriller rolled into one

—— Independent

Indebted to Borges and with a nod to Auster, he manages to surpass both with the audacity and sheer erudition of his prose

—— Catherine Taylor , The Guardian

In the pacy denouement the consequences of the hero's actions are played out with surprising deftness... [An] extraordinarily bold and peculiar romance

—— The Times

Written with gusto, wit an imaginative energy...an urgent and topical masterpiece

—— Literary Review

Thought-provoking, scrupulously constructed and narrated with buoyant high spirits

—— Times Literary Supplement

Cleverly written and left me with lots to think about...a very good book

—— http://www.farmlanebooks.co.uk/

The Dollmaker's depiction of family life - the entangled bonds between parents and children, brothers and sisters - is unparalleled in modern fiction

—— Georgia Review

Hame is a sweet and quaint novel, full of just-in-time revelations and obvious fondness.

—— Stuart Kelly , Guardian

Hame is an ambitious and multi-layered tome… McAfee’s attention to detail is remarkable. She covers great swathes of history and goes to enormous lengths to flesh out even minor characters… McAfee’s deadpan humour means much of the book is wryly amusing.

—— Dani Garavelli , The Herald

If Hame often comes over like a more cheerful version of a Sarah Moss novel, it’s also sneakily political at a time when a hard Brexit dangles the prospect of a Great British break-up… Be careful what you wish for – or at least how you wish for it – seems to be the message; but while Hame’s pivotal revelation first lands with the force of a raspberry blown in the face of nationalism, it’s typical of the novel’s generosity that it finally feels like more of a kiss.

—— Anthony Cummins , Observer

A clever patchwork blanket of narratives… It’s very convincing, despite being entirely fictional.

—— UK Press Syndication

Gorgeous

—— Samantha Irby , Marie Claire US

Partly a gentle satire and partly a genuine celebration of Scotland written by the London-born daughter of Scottish parents, Hame is written with wit and intelligence.

—— Alastair Mabbott , The Herald

Funny and warm, heartbreaking too. Impressive debut!

—— Claire Allan

emotional, raw, deeply moving and…funny too

—— The Scotsman

...a really rather good YA crossover ... while Khorsandi's novel tackles some pretty big subjects, it does so while making you laugh out loud

—— Metro

I really couldn’t put this book down. It’s not just for young people but if you have a teenage daughter, please make her read it.

—— The Sun

I am loving Shappi Khorsandi's Nina is Not OK, she is making me care about 'Nina' so much that I get anxious on her behalf

—— Jenny Eclair

Thematically taut and compulsively paced.

—— Edmund Gordon , Sunday Times

A very good novel of anxiety, embarrassment and also, somehow, the depths of Englishness.

—— Evening Standard

Marvellous, original and intelligent. Kunzru writes like a master storyteller... There's simply nothing [he] couldn't manage in prose

—— Literary Review

Publisher's description. Electrifying, subversive and wildly original, White Tears is a ghost story and a love story, a story about lost innocence and historical guilt. This unmissable novel penetrates the heart of a nation's darkness, encountering a suppressed history of greed, envy, revenge and exploitation, and holding a mirror up to the true nature of America today.

—— Penguin

Compulsively readable, masterly - a tour de force

—— Rachel Kushner

Riveting from the very first page, I was completely addicted... A literary thriller and a timely, unsparing excavation of the very real spectre of race in America's past and present. White Tears is proof that Kunzru is one of the finest novelists of his generation...

—— Mirza Waheed

Hari Kunzru is an incredibly versatile writer who is alert to the inequalities in the world... Powerful and complex, White Tears is a novel about abuses of wealth and power. Brilliantly orchestrated, unforgettable and devastating

—— Bernardine Evaristo

Hari Kunzru is one of our most important novelists

—— Independent on Sunday

Kunzru's engagingly wired prose and agile plotting sweep all before them

—— New Yorker

Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton shouldn't work, but its frail texture was a triumph of tenderness, and sent me back to her excellent Olive Kitteridge

—— Cressida Connolly , The Spectator

A rich account of a relationship between mother and daughter, the frailty of memory and the power of healing

—— Mark Damazer , New Statesman

This physically slight book packs an unexpected emotional punch

—— Simon Heffer , Daily Telegraph

A novel offering more hope

—— Daisy Goodwin , Daily Mail

My Name Is Lucy Barton intrigues and pierces with its evocative, skin-peeling back remembrances of growing up dirt-poor.

—— Ann Treneman , The Times

Masterly

—— Anna Murphy
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