Enjoyable story of love blossoming over the scalpels

A heartlifting novel by a master-weaver of romance and adventure

Nevil Shute made me yearn for a faithful, plodding, Shute-type of man. I imagined us trekking across the Australian outback, finding a run-down hamlet, and then transforming it together until death or flood parted us

We know so little about the day-to-day life of people in Afghanistan - and in particular its women - that glittering gems such as this ... become all the more valuable for shining a torch on a beleaguered and largely unseen existence

Her monologue is a direct attempt on the part of Rahimi to rip away the veil over Afghan women's lives... An act of political courage and a beautifully constructed, deeply memorable novella

Perfectly written

Powerful... truly an expansive work of literature

One thinks of Marguerite Duras, the plays of Sartre, the absurdity of Samuel Beckett, even of Ernest Hemingway. Strangely beautiful, poignant, by turns light and serious... The Patience Stone is one of those rare novels which make time elastic; too short, it can be read in one go, yet it never leaves you

An astonishing writer: this book is another brilliant triumph

Rich in symbolism

Atiq Rahimi's prose is spare and elegant and sporadically mutates into shards of evocative poetry. Polly McLean's translation does justice to the original French

This, his eighth work of fiction since Trainspotting, has all the ingredients of his earlier success. I found it funny, dark and readable, showing the author on good form

Irvine Welsh's novel is...a powerful and intelligent fable about human emotions and behaviour

A beautifully controlled novel

There's plenty here to pull you in and, it must be said, I do really like the cover

Stories, generations and nationalities collide in what is an entertaining and superior novel