A love story of charm and substance, brimming over with ideas, yet anchored in emotional truth. The plot is as labyrinthine as any by Umberto Eco... Extremely witty... Dip into this book at random and the chances are it will sit up and bite you like a rattlesnake

The most lavishly ambitious American novel since Gravity's Rainbow... An outright marvel

The Gold Bug Variations has everything... Stunning... Almost every sentence is a heroic tour de force... The joy to be taken in reading the book is, like the pleasure of studying crystal multiplication, in seeing a pattern swarm mosaically over everything, watching a stencil laid over life

One of the best writers working now

Powers has triumphantly restored...the philosophical novel

A work of art

It comes to remind the Western reader that the razzle dazzle of electric lighting was foreign for thousands of years … above all, it highlights the fact that shadow is inseparable from our holistic and spiritual relationship with light -

A highly infectious essay lauding all things shady and subtly hidden

This translation...reads like a glorious poem... The descriptions of interiors are much more evocative than any image could be - just stunning. They are words to live by

A perfect novel

In Olive Kitteridge, Strout has created one of those rare characters...so vivid and humorous they seems to take on a life independent of the story framing them

Elizabeth Strout is... one of the undisputed heavyweights of generous, clear-eyed domestic realism

A special, precious book...full of hope and humanity

Funny, sad, tender and truthful, this is pure joy

A powerful storyteller immersed in the nuances of human relationships

Strout really can write you into a world until you feel you are there with her, in that house, that life, that little Podunk of a place

Writing of this quality comes from a commitment to listening, from a perfect attunement to the human condition, from an attention to reality so exact that it goes beyond a skill and becomes a virtue

Strout, always good, just keeps getting better

A writer at the peak of her powers

It's hard to believe that a year after the astonishing My Name Is Lucy Barton Elizabeth Strout could bring us another book that is by every measure its equal, but what Strout proves to us again and again is that where she's concerned, anything is possible. This book, this writer, are magnificent.

Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force

A book that speaks volumes about our need for connection - human, feline or otherwise.

This touching novel of a brave cat and his gentle, wise human will resonate with lovers of animal tales, quiet stories of friendship, and travelogues alike.

Gentle, soft-spoken, and full of wisdom

A delight to read

Prepare to have your heartstrings tugged by this quirky tale