One of the truly important books of the century, in any language

Sublime

A massive novel set out to explore the positive side of human nature, the fullness of man's capacity as a thinker and as a prober into scared mysteries...Touching and impressive

Her turn of phrase is clever and perceptive ... this book was my devoted pal. Can't wait for the next one!

This witty comedy of manners is a thoroughly entertaining read ... extremely observant and insightful

A comical look at the trials and tribulations of modern marriage

Fiona Neill's comic novel is an investigation into modern marriage...Neill's characters are so cleverly depicted, you feel as if you've met at least one of them before

Beneath the farce is a profound examination of immigration, and the lengths people go to for a better life

Fast-paced comedy with a serious side… Highly entertaining

That rare beast: a novel full of heart of conscience that never takes itself too seriously

This is a humorous and action-packed story… It’s about rags-to-riches, bad-to-good, with a picture perfect happy ending. Witty, insane, unhesitating, Puertolas has produced a delightful and ridiculous first novel

It’s an intriguing read and I’d love to know what Romain Puértolas will write next

Thought-provoking, a fast-paced comedy.

Fine and wonderfully original debut novel.

A hauntingly brilliant first novel about how we respond to the past... I envied, as well as admired, this author's literary command. A star is born.

One of the year’s most impressive first novels…Hunters in the Snow’s ambition, scope and assurance…are thrilling and admirable, and make for a very fine book indeed.

Wonderfully lyrical… Ambitious and moving

extraordinary first novel... a 21st-century War and Peace

Both heart wrenching and uplifting, a stunning, intricately plotted, brilliantly written, tour-de-force of a novel that burns into the memory

Mr Marra is trying to capture some essence of the lives of men and women caught in the pincers of a brutal, decade-long war, and at this he succeeds beautifully... its ending is almost certain to leave you choked up and, briefly at least, transformed by tenderness.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is one of the most accomplished and affecting books I've read in a very long time.

At the start of Marra's ambitious first novel, set in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War, eight year-old Havaa escapes the Russian soldiers that are carting off her father and flees a home set alight. Marra then plunges into a complex, beautifully crafted series of events, full of secrets and elegant moments, all wreathed in a frozen world.

Some novels defy gravity, spanning years and crossing ruined landscapes and entire solar systems of characters while still maintaining an ethereal, almost impossible lightness. Anthony Marra’s debut novel is one of them, and it does indeed call to mind an astronomical marvel. Taking place in war-ravaged Chechnya across a decade, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a stunning debut, following a timid but determined country doctor and the girl he rescues once her father is arrested and presumably killed. Marra elegantly slides across time and perspective, mastering an omniscient voice that reveals each character’s future, present, and past, all in acrobatic sentences that leap through time.

A flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles… Here, in fresh, graceful prose, is a profound story that dares to be as tender as it is ghastly… I haven’t been so overwhelmed by a novel in years. At the risk of raising your expectations too high, I have to say you simply must read this book

Marra is a brisk and able story-teller, and he moves deftly between a number of characters who are drawn into contact by the war… The writing is vivid throughout

Original, insightful