Maeve Binchy has a gimlet eye for the seething cauldron of emotions which lies beneath the surface of everyday life

An adept storyteller with a sharp eye for social nuances and a pleasing affection for her characters

Has a lovely warm heart... Her prose is magnificently simple and lucid

Touching, gossipy and as warming as a feather bed

Compulsive reading ... Ms Binchy has the true story-teller's knack

Sahota combines great writing with amazing storytelling... his books are intelligent and beautifully written and very poised but also incredibly immersive, gripping and very moving. An epic in miniature, China Room is the kind of novel that reminds you why you fell in love with reading in the first place.

Novels this good are rare.

Sahota's prose is a finely modulated instrument that moves from subtle minutiae to cosmic magnitude... Exhibiting the narrative control and psychological acuity of Rohinton Mistry and Jhumpa Lahiri, Sahota's tale of trans-generational trauma is quietly devastating.

Sahota's beautifully crafted novel dovetails two stories from different eras... Both characters are prisoners of circumstances but, in their hunger for redemption, become emblematic of the human condition.

Such a thrilling combination of beauty and heartbreak. It's breathtaking.

Sahota gives his period narrative the same effortless immediacy as his present-day one, yet his novel works by stealth, quietly beguiling the reader into an almost painful intimacy... I loved it.

There is a scrupulous subtlety about that way that Sahota refuses to let his historical characters act as though they are in a historical novel.

An intense drama of classic themes - love, family, survival, and betrayal - told with passion and precision in Sahota's economical, lyrical prose.

A gripping read... a memorable and poignant depiction of how family histories can echo through the generations.

Outstanding... dense with intricate layers. As author, Sahota brilliantly plays with access to knowledge, to history. China Room promises to haunt and to illuminate.

China Room is very good at examining the trauma held in one family, whether it be personal or housed in a home, village, or country. Sahota seems to acknowledge that although we are not doomed to repeat the past, each subsequent generation feels a measure of the hardship that the last generation faced... a well-developed story of two lives that touch one another in ways that that can never be clearly seen.

Engrossing, intricate, excellent.

Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways propelled him on to the 2015 Booker shortlist. His latest, China Room, a multi-generational masterpiece ... could well see him nominated again.

Political currents seep subtly in and the cumulative effect is potent

Exquisitely written

Sunjeev Sahota balances weighty ideas about cultural prisons and self-determination with hushed, featherweight prose

[A] hauntingly beautiful novel

Sahota's third novel has prose so beautiful it stops you dead

It's unbearably wrenching . . . Mohamed makes the outrage at the book's heart blazingly unignorable by inhabiting Mattan's point of view, a bold endeavour pulled off to powerful effect. Passages from the barbaric climax are still echoing in my head, even as I type

Just as Half of a Yellow Sun drew out the little documented dramas of the Biafran war, Mohamed describes an East Africa under Mussolini's rule . . . such an accomplished first novel

A first novel of elegance and beauty... a stunning debut

A haunting and intimate portrait of the lives of women in war-torn Somalia

Mixing startling lyricism and sheer brutality, this is a significant, affecting book

With the unadorned language of a wise, clear-eyed observer, Nadifa Mohamed has spun an unforgettable tale

A moving and captivating tale of survival and hope in a war-torn country, and confirms Mohamed's stature as one of Britain's best young novelists

Mesmerising

Mackintosh poses urgent questions about social expectations and free will that are relevant to all realities

Heartbreaking but redemptive, and lightened by French's trademark humour, this is a compelling read that will keep you poised between laughter and tears

A tantalising story of motherhood told with Dawn French's signature warmth

As ever, even in the darkest of times, Dawn has found humour to inject into her novel

A brilliant book

The life-affirming and unmissable new novel

A tale told with warmth

While Dawn French's latest novel contains a dash of humour, it's also heart-wrenching

A fabulous emotional tearjerker of a novel

Praise for Dawn French

Hilarious and brilliant

I adored According to YES. It's so different to anything I've read in forever, so charming, wise, brilliantly written. I loved it all

Witty and wise, it'll have you burning the midnight oil. A cracker

Very funny and packs an emotional clout. Brilliant!

An enlightening and feel-good read offering a fresh look at life and how to embrace it. Funny and enjoyable to the end

There is lots of fun to be had reading this book. It's impossible not to warm to Rosie, a funny and open-hearted woman who acts as a salve and comfort blanket for this unhappy, inhibited family. There's something quite joyous about the way she unashamedly romps her way through the novel, changing the lives of those around her for the better

Another hilarious novel!

French can spin a yarn . . . which sets According to YES apart. Think the vicar of Dibley, without the dog collar. YES YES YES indeed

Wise and poignant

Heart-warming