The Rack is not an easy read, particularly now, but it is a vital one, a novel of big ideas with a febrile, twisted sentimentality at its heart. It asks us to consider what makes life worth living, and what, in the end, we would be prepared to die for

Very moving... A powerful love story

There are certain books we call great for want of a better term, that rise like monuments above the cemeteries of literature: Clarissa, Great Expectations, Ulysses. The Rack to my mind is one of this company

Quite possibly a masterpiece

A work of sombre power, of soaring comedy

Book of the year if there ever was one

Vuong's poems passionately and inventively articulate the difficulties of understanding and accepting selfhood alongside the varieties of life beyond it

There's something about Vuong's writing that demands all of your lungs. The succinct line arrangement and absence of full stops in poems... force you to breathe heavy

Not since Emily Dickinson has poetry found such an oceanic openness of the self's quiet laceration and cautious resilience. In Time Is A Mother Ocean Vuong's words are bullets travelling through the page and hitting us with debris resembling our memory of art, love, grief and acts of survival... We find ourselves being salvaged and released into a world where a word, a turn of phrase, or a line makes a difficult moment bearable. There is a violent process of fermentation in Vuong's poems that keeps poetry pungent, truth-seeking and unerasable

Vuong writes with such a sensitive scrutiny, breathtaking in its expression

A stirring collection of poetry. Vuong experiments with language and form while probing the aftermath of his mother's death and his determination to survive it. Take your time with these poems, and return to them often

Through these poems, Vuong sings loud and clear of everything worth living for and discovering - just as vividly as he did in his critically acclaimed titles On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Night Sky With Exit Wounds

An incredibly impactful collection, there's no doubt Time Is A Mother will strike a chord with most

A profound and accomplished collection

Heartbreaking and perfect

A gorgeous, moving and awe-inspiring gathering of poems that feel like award-winning short films. These vignettes of loss, grief and love will take your breath away

An indispensable collection

I've been Anne Tyler-ed. After finishing French Braid, the 24th novel from the formidable American novelist, I was going about my life thinking nothing particularly radical had happened to me. And then I thought about it, and I thought about it some more, and I realised - boom - she really is a master

Anne Tyler's genius lies in her ability to make the lives of this unremarkable family as enthralling as those of the most heroic soldiers or diabolical serial killers... This is a novel to add to the list of her greatest triumphs

Anne Tyler is the world's best living novelist... in French Braid Tyler demonstrates once again why she is so beloved... What she offers is...a glimpse into the very workings of the human heart

[A] wonderful novel

Tyler's books are full of subtleties, tender compassion and humanity, and French Braid is no exception

[Tyler's] style is striking... few are better at covering the passage of time, and hinting at the shifting cultural climate in a single sentence

Deft and graceful, French Braid is utterly convincing. Fifty-eight years since she published her first novel, Tyler continues to capture life's joys, contradictions and ordinary heartbreaks with humour and precision

Tyler pulls off the rare feat of presenting her characters both as they see themselves and as others see them

A warm-hearted exploration of the foibles and dynamics of family life

read her for the eccentric characters, the pitch-perfect dialogue, the humour and the tiny ordinary moments so exquisitely described they bring tears to your eyes

A warm-hearted exploration of the foibles and dynamics of family life

Tyler is a superb observer of family life... Heartbreak is deftly layered over a vibrant portrayal of the city, its codes and nuances

Anne Tyler is a wonderful storyteller and French Braid is another classic... Funny but hearthbreaking, too. I loved every single page

Anne Tyler's genius lies in her ability to make this unremarkable family so enthralling

Tyler is a genius at telling big stories with small details and this is an engrossing, fascinating family portrait

Gentle and comforting, but with a hidden core of desperate, cloying sadness, and is vintage Tyler

An astute, well-observed and compulsively readable saga

I adore her [Tyler] books. She’s written 24 novels and I’ve read every single one. She’s 81 and yet French Braid, her latest, is one of her very best

Kimberly Farr reads with a gentle-paced wryness, thoughtful and exact