A book I read only some years ago, and was astonished by its modernity, its formidable intelligence and its punk sensibility, was The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen

A strongly autobiographical portrait of a lost class marking out its final moments - every garden party, every house guest and every flirtation is touched by a sense of impending extinction

When I read [The Last September] I was knocked out by the sheer magnificence of her writing, the cinematic possibilities, and her obsession with the minutiae and the detail of life... I was totally gripped by the story

Posterity will one day return to Miss Bowen's novels as a repository of clues to the inner life of our times

A combination of social comedy and private tragedy...brilliant description of Anglo-Irish life at the troublesome time of 1920

She is a major writer; her name should appear on any responsible list of the ten most important fiction writers on this side of the Atlantic this century. She is what happened after Bloomsbury...the link that connects Virginia Woolf with Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark

Like Chekhov's plays about the dying years of Russian feudalism, The Last September captures the silliness, the snobbery, the perfect manners, the determination not to show their feelings, the denial, and the ending of the way of life of Bowen's circle

'The Last September catches the languid yet curiously valiant mode of life at the big house just as its demolition was at hand'

A deft exploration of millennial angst

‘A joyfully weird, compulsive political satire'

Inventive and darkly funny...as Anthony connects characters from today with those from 19th-century England, she offers an original and unsettling lens through which to view male power as it has evolved over time.

‘Weird, wonderful, and very much of the moment, Enter the Aardvark is a landmark political novel of the Trump era.’

The scope of Anthony’s imagination can sometimes beggar belief. What a mind she has. As the narrative twists between the past and the present, it seems like anything could happen at any time….a hilariously poisonous evisceration of the cowardly, disingenuous politicians running rampant through Trump’s Washington.

‘Sometimes, a paragraph near the start of a novel is so perfect and funny that you read it over and over, laugh every time, and know you’re in for a treat…I'm loving it. Completely insane but utterly hilarious’

‘A curious, surprising and moving story about two men who— to put it one way — become involved with an aardvark and thereby condemn themselves to death.’

Like A.S. Byatt like with a demented sense of humor… [Jessica Anthony] holds up a funhouse mirror to our own political media in the age of spin…with sentences reminiscent of Joyce’s Dubliners and the later works of T. S. Eliot.

A wild ride and might just be the perfect antidote to the wild ride we’re in in real life].

The structure doesn’t so much intrigue as ensnare you, weaving its cat’s cradle of a plot as you lie there, strapped to a table... “Enter the Aardvark” is brutally suited to our moment of absurd political theater.

A blisteringly innovative and outrageous novel...If you're searching for a sharp, looking-glass view into the far end of contemporary politics, look no further. Jessica Anthony's novel has the pacing of a thriller with satirical verve of Nathanael West.

'Enter the Aardvark is one wild ride: a condemnation, a haunting, a song of love, a madcap political thriller—and it is absolutely unputdownable.' LAURA VAN DEN BERG, author of THE THIRD HOTEL

'Hilarious, moving, ingenious... Enter the Aardvark is an absolute original.'

Absolutely fascinating! If you're a fan of Jurassic Park, Tahereh Mafi & Marie Lu's work, then this is the perfect book for you!

I really liked this book. Right from the start the story drew me in . . . I can't wait for the next book

So enjoyable and a super fast read . . . Made me feel proud of being a STEM girl . . . Go read this book for the adventure and discovery!

Now THIS is a book I really enjoyed . . . covers some really great themes that are both topical and interesting. Social psychology, anthropology, paleontology, bias, racism, ethics - it's got it all!

Fascinating . . . has twists & turns & even broke my heart into tiny little pieces. I'd recommend this to fans of the Hunger Games, Maze Runner & Ready Player One.

This Jurassic Park-esque concept grabbed me immediately . . . a fresh, gripping read with themes of suspense, trust, ethics and friendships

I absolutely devoured this book . . . Warren did a perfect job of pulling me in and answering some of my questions, but leaving enough of it unanswered so that I want more . . . and I definitely do! I can't wait for the next instalment!

Hypnotising... you won't want to put it down until the very last page

You'll find sisterhood at the heart of this ambitious book

Galgut is a terrifically agile and consistently interesting novelist, certain up there with Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee as a chronicler of his nation's anguished complexity

[A] magnificent new novel. Galgut sweeps his ruthlessly forensic gaze over each of the protagonists...as well as the country at large

Labelled a masterpiece and one of the best novels of the year within a week of publication... Galgut is on his finest form as he explores grief, despair and love in his inimitable style. Read this book if nothing else this year.

[A] gripping, profound tale... a damning commentary on South Africa's many broken promises

Ingenious... The most distinctive element of the novel, and its greatest pleasure, is the effortless way Galgut flows from mind to mind and body to body, whether male, female, pubertal, menopausal, maturing, ageing or dying. It's almost uncanny

Surrender to the music of Galgut's prose, however, and the rewards are considerable

Excellent... The Promise is a powerful novel of character... [an] ambitious novel but, remarkably, Galgut rarely needs to strain for impact... his ability deftly to shift perspective from one character to the next creates a distinctive polyphonic effect

A convincing and heartfelt novel

Politically chastening and technically superb. It's hard to see any novel beating it

A powerful read

This is the finest of all Damon Galgut's extraordinary novels. It reads as if the author has liberated himself from certain shackles he has needed in the past to convey the feelings of repression and social discomfort his people suffer... The writing - so impish, so playful - is a constant joy

Vivid and suggestive, moving and often very funny

Damon Galgut is the most worthy winner of the Booker prize we've seen for many years... The book trembles in the hand with its political relevance

A sobering allegory, to be sure, but also a giddy pleasure, thanks to Galgut's restlessly acrobatic narrative voice, which darts and zooms unpredictably around the action

One of the world's great writers

A dazzling feat of kaleidoscopic storytelling

I would have chosen this novel before it won the Booker... What makes it special is the humanity with which it is written and Galgut's cinematic prose, which shifts seamlessly from one perspective to the next

The Promise...is a remarkable tale of four generations of one South African family and of the country itself. Like his earlier books, it reveals him as a master of human complexity. No wonder it won the Booker

A complex, clever, wryly observant tale of one family's decline amid a nation's birth

[A] masterful, sweeping novel... a piercing dissection of a country at a decisive historical junction and the intersection of socio-political events and private life

The Promise is just 300 pages long, but Galgut shows his skills as a concise and piercing novelist by packing so much into this exceptional book

A layered, clever and sometimes uncomfortable read, but with a gripping story

A remarkably successful combination of formal discipline and finely observed characterisation, it was a worthy winner of the 2021 Booker prize

The judges of this year's Booker prize rightly crowned this outstanding multigenerational saga... The morally chewy scenario is given extra zest by an acrobatic narrative voice full of trickery

The Promise...is mesmerising

A joyful masterclass in fiction... a dizzying adventure that underlines one of the most appealing things about fiction: it is the closest we can ever get to inhabiting other perspectives

Inventive and full of energy

Gentle, precise, insightful, melancholy but warm