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The Rain Forest
The Rain Forest
Jan 10, 2026 2:48 PM

Author:Olivia Manning

The Rain Forest

From one of the classic writers of post-war English literature comes a stunning novel of love, betrayal and redemption. Married but obstinately set in their separate ways, Hugh and Kristy Foster know nothing of Al-Bustan, a far-flung island in the Indian Ocean. Too late they discover how it seethes with unrest and intrigue. Yet now when they need each other, the sullen, muttering forest seems only to intensify their differences.

Reviews

So rich and significant- the novel gives the impression of having been felt as well as imagined -- beautifully written, buttressed by wisdom, judgement, keen observation and knowledge of life.

—— Irish Times

This novel -- so masterly, so calm and dazzling -- is her most ambitious. It is also her best.

—— Sunday Telegraph

A hysterically funny monologue which has already added a new prototype to American literature... Anyone who can recall anything of the awesome mystery and humiliating farce of growing up will find this book compulsive reading. And it is blessedly, extremely funny

—— Spectator

Philip Roth's gift for fantasy, his superb dialogue, his ability to evoke places and atmospheres, make Portnoy's Complaint at once hilariously, scabrously funny and deeply moving

—— Financial Times

Alexander Portnoy is a great comic character. He is going to be for many readers what his mother was for him: The Most Unforgettable Character I've Met

—— New Statesman

A gratifying novel... Indignation is, unquestionably, seriously "good" Roth

—— The Times

Roth's novels abound in comic moments, and so does Indignation...His powerful new novel seethes with outrage...a deft, gripping, and deeply moving narrative

—— New York Review of Books

Indignation ought to be required reading for presidential candidates

—— Evening Standard

Indignation is, among its many pleasures, a controlled expression of wrath

—— Daily Telegraph

If I had to choose one word to sum up Indignation I'd go for classy. If were allowed two: very classy

—— Sunday Telegraph

Consummately elegant

—— Sunday Times

He writes perceptively about the shift from self-absorbed teenager to adult.

—— The Times

If all works of fiction were as thoughtful, as subtle, as well constructed and as funny as Metroland there would be no more talk of the death of the novel

—— New Statesman

It's one of the best accounts of clever English schoolboyhood I've read

—— Times Educational Supplement

Irony and imagery are deployed with a finesse even Flaubert wouldn't wince at...consummately elegant

—— Sunday Times
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