[A] vivid and tender coming-of-age story set at the end of the world . . . For all its coldness and darkness, The Sunlight Pilgrims is ultimately a hopeful book – and for a novel that describes the end of the world, that is quite a feat.

Fagan received widespread acclaim for her 2012 debut The Panopticon, and was named as one of the prestigious Granta Best of Young British Novelists a year later. The Sunlight Pilgrims further cements Fagan’s reputation as a writer of skill and depth, a book that shares a similar outsider charm to its predecessor, and one that delves deep into how we relate to others on a human level in the face of all the crap that life throws at us … The author also, it should be said, writes like the poet that she is, with an original eye for description, a wonderful rhythm to her prose, and some genuinely inspiring and unusual characters. An impressive read.

The Sunlight Pilgrims evokes a chillingly plausible near-future . . . intimately imagined.

Fagan’s vivid, poetic-prose style injects the book with energy. She writes at the pace of thought, sentences like gunfire … She has a poet's affection for precision and image.

Fagan is drawn to those who exist on the outer reaches, and in The Sunlight Pilgrims it is in the literal margins where a broader and yet more refined collection of voices is drawn together … The Sunlight Pilgrims is about the confluence of characters searching to fill the gaps in their lives … In the transgender 11-year-old Stella we have an engaging protagonist whose isolation is mental, physical and geographical, yet who is imbued with a survivalist’s steely resolve ... Indeed, it is somewhere between Alan Warner and Iain Banks that Fagan’s storytelling ability sits, the grit of her familial backstories and dysfunctional relationships dusted with the glitter of magical realism ... In heightened poetic prose, Fagan does for rural Scottish fiction what Kathleen Jamie is doing in poetry and Amy Liptrot in non-fiction: evocatively documenting the ever-changing daily drama of the landscape … This is a novel about summoning hidden strengths and finding one’s place in a universe defined by chaos.

Fagan …explores some big ideas; namely the environment, gender and familial structure. She addresses these themes with an infectious, otherworldly hilarity, assembling an eccentric cast of characters who triumphantly flout convention.

It was with a degree of trepidation that I opened her new novel, The Sunlight Pilgrims, wondering if it would bear the weight of expectation. Thankfully, it does. It has the same combination of the weird and the all too real: the same concern for the marginal and the disposed. But it plays for higher stakes, and reaps greater rewards . . . I cannot wait to see what she does next.

As soon as I read the other-worldly first sentence of Jenni Fagan’s The Sunlight Pilgrims, with its poetic rhythm and sense of impending doom, I had a feeling this was going to be something special . . . I devoured the rest of the poet and author’s beautiful and strange second novel . . . With poignant reminder of not just the fragility of human emotions but of life itself, The Sunlight Pilgrims is a novel about connecting with others . . . [it] tackles current issues with a haunting, timeless beauty.

Fagan is brilliant at creating empathy in the reader for her complex and uncompromising characters, so The Sunlight Pilgrims promises to be an emotional ride.

In haunting prose Fagan creates a credible apocalyptic landscape and articulates the survival instinct and our capacity for love.

It’s littered with that same sparkle: misery and fear and awe and joy all co-exist, and that’s what makes Fagan stand out… Big thumbs up. Beauty and horror, love and death, ice and light – what a package! While eschewing huge plotlines, Fagan still gives us a rattling story, and if this is how the world ends, there’d be much worse ways to go than in the company of Stella and her cohort in the Fells.

The Sunlight Pilgrims is full of the music of life and language … This is a novel that, with its vision of climate crisis and mass migration, couldn’t feel more of the moment.

It’s a wonderfully odd tale, beautifully told.

A writer of…talent, heart and vision.

[A] remarkably accomplished and enjoyable piece of work. Here is a book that draws you into the lives of fascinating, intriguing characters facing truly exceptional circumstances.

Fagan’s writing has a remarkably poetic quality when she describes scenes of tremendous emotional conflict …beautifully moving …Fagan is equally skilful at writing punchy dialogue …The Sunlight Pilgrims is a beautifully written and chilling vision of the future with refreshingly original characters.

A refreshingly unusual tale.

Jenni writes with such great understanding and insight …this book should be required reading for teens and adults alike … I defy anyone not to shed a silent tear or two before the story finishes.

The first thing to say about this book is that it is a very good read. The second is that The Hypnotist tackles some very heavy themes

Oz has written so well for so long, the craft shows. Judas reads quickly, and gracefully, without a superfluous page.

Vintage Oz, very atmospheric, and heavy on authentic detail… Enjoy reading the book, and then enjoy peeling back the layers.

Regarded as a potential Nobel laureate… Oz is always worth heeding. It is an important work and as ever Oz’s translator Nicholas de Lange attends to the power, intensity and nuance Oz brings to every idea.

Judas is yet another accomplished work by a master comfortable in his game… accessibly profound as well as deeply thought-provoking. A must for anyone interested in Christianity, politics, and the meaning of friendship. Otherwise, Judas is a great way to meet one of the most important writers in the 21st century at his best.

A novel that grapples with mankind’s most indelible anxieties, from the nature of damnation to the smaller but no less urgent details of tea-making, Judas is an intelligent and hypnotic novel.

All We Shall Know blew me away, left me blubbering on my commute and wide awake at 2 a.m. . . . He excels at first-person narrative, and it's this that makes All We Shall Know unforgettable.

An intense, dramatic story . . . rather touching.

His best yet . . . I kept re-reading paragraphs and whole pages to savour Ryan's remarkable prose. The book imbues profanity with poetry, and the characters, for all their flaws, are beautifully and sympathetically drawn.

Unflinching.

A wonderful novel.

In a word, this book is stunning.

A beautiful, heart-rending novel of quiet, understated tragedy… Sensitive and insightful, heart-breaking and hopeful… [A] tender, wise and hopeful novel.

Both novels offer precision of language and metaphor and scene even as what is being constructed feels messy, chaotic, sad, hopeless... Both orphaned and alone in the world, both so completely real, both telling a story that feels important and exciting to read. I feel lucky to have stumbled upon these books this year, and challenged by them to be better

This debut novel by acclaimed short story writer van den Berg tends to lean much closer to the realms of literary fiction with its complex psychology. . . Van den Berg's writing is curiously beautiful

a strange beauty in this apocalyptic tale

Charming, magical, mysterious, enthralling

Lushly imagined, extremely charming and very, very readable

The Night Circus made me happy. Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for. This is a marvelous book

The Night Circus pulls you into a world as dark as it is dazzling, fully-realized but still something out of a dream. You will not want to leave it

Pure pleasure... Erin Morgenstern is a gifted, classic storyteller, a tale-teller, a spinner of the charmed and mesmerizing - I had many other things I was supposed to be doing, but the book kept drawing me back in and I tore through it. You can be certain this riveting debut will create a group of rêveurs all its own

This 19th-Century Anglo-American costume drama about two star-crossed lovers in a fantastical travelling circus is as dreamlike and magical as its setting

I'm not often lost for words, but I'm struggling to find the words to describe just how good this book is and how it made me feel, so I'll just say this: if you are only able to read one book for the rest of your life, make sure it is The Night Circus. You won't regret it

This must be one of the most beautiful novels of the year. Its die-cut cover, black-edged pages and intricate endpapers attest to the publisher's hopes that Erin Morgenstern's magically minded debut will secure the vast audience left bereft by the conclusion of the Harry Potter chronicles

The narrative is deft and satisfying, and the author's talent is intriguing

Enchanting, and affecting... I was compelled by the world itself - by its saturated colours and textures, its unexpected smells and tastes. It is a surprisingly rare thing in fiction - a strikingly beautiful world, in spite of its darkness

Morgenstern's writing, when it comes to magical creations, is delectable, addictive stuff...[it] leaves a tang of smoky caramel in the air as it ends, and an undeniable urge to go to the circus

A beguiling, gripping read... Morgenstern has crafted a thrilling and transporting tale

Extraordinary, atmospheric, a mind-spinning story

This week's hot read...I loved this book and didn't want it to end... Totally absorbing and beautifully descriptive, it created a whole world I couldn't help but get lost in, especially the slow-burning love story between the two main characters, who are both sorcerers

Enter the magical world of a mysterious travelling circus

The new One Day... Erin Morgenstern is the talk of the literary world and we hear The Night Circus will be the next big thing. Set in a mysterious, monochrome circus the book centres on two young magicians who begin to fall in love

Fantasy blends seamlessly with reality and I ended up having to use words like this: enchanting

Erin Morgenstern's astonishingly vivid imagination made the unbelievable believable...in other words I fell for it all... There is illusion and delusion, shape-shifting, manipulation and deceit, misdirection and more often than not all is definitely not what it seems as the story unfolds, and if you are as unforgiving as I am of entire books written in the present tense, in this case, as you read you will see why it is necessary. The present tense embraces shifting time whether past or future, it is actually always the present ..see I can hardly make sense of it myself, you need to read it to see how well it works. And yes, I was enchanted, and I did run away with the circus as young Bailey does, and as I closed the book of course I came back to reality gently wondering whether I was supposed to be thinking, how long before Bailey meets Mr Barnum

An enchanting tale of forbidden love, set against the spectacular backdrop of the circus

A recommendation by Audrey Niffenegger...should ensure this amazing debut novel gets the attention it deserves

Fantasy lovers, here comes Harry Potter for grown-ups... The story is already en-route to Hollywoood so snap up the original tale first

It is rich, evocative, compelling, enchanting, whimsical, breath-taking, playful, imaginative, marvellous, and quite simply beautiful in every single way. I love it

Rich in Shakespearean allusion, this is McEwan on dazzling form.

Told from a perspective unlike any other, Nutshell is a classic tale of murder and deceit from one of the world’s master storytellers.

Ian McEwan’s brilliance as a stylist and surprise plotter finds a fitting subject in Nutshell…, which is Hamlet as told from inside the womb. Up there with his best.

A gripping tale is told with breathtaking skill, turbocharged with rage against the madness and despair of our modern world.

Nutshell is one of those books you sit down to read and don’t get up until you’ve finished. It is brilliantly executed and full of surprises; original, clever and witty. Simply a must-read

A book I couldn’t put down… brilliantly clever