An original and affecting coming-of-age novel ... Snaith's clear-eyed depiction of estate life at the turn of the millennium resists cliches

Written in clear yet multi-layered prose ... a vibrant portrayal of estate life in the late nineties and an affecting story of friendship, dealing with pain, grief and coming-of-age in a single-parent family. While those big themes pervade, it’s the minutiae of life in Ravine’s and Amma’s flat that bring welcome humour, like her descriptions of Amma in her sari and white trainers, cleaned daily with vinegar and lemon ... It’s an original, heartfelt read that will appeal as much to children of the nineties and noughties as it will readers of any age excited by a new British talent.

Snaith has a delightfully fresh voice and vividly conveys the claustrophobic nature of Ravine's situation as the mystery of what happened ten years earlier is gradually revealed.

Definitely worth squeezing into your hand luggage... one of the most brilliant summer beach reads ... a promising debut

A powerful debut ... told with warmth and humanity, this is a novel that shines because the characters feel so human and their plights feel so real

Mahsuda Snaith is an exciting new voice in fiction. Her writing is deceptive. Crystal clear sentences ooze with texture and nuance. Characters that drip with lived experience. And above all, a clarity of vision. Mahsuda's work is brave and bold and she has a massive future ahead of her.

A break out book from an incredibly talented debut writer [and] a quirky lovable mystery set in a Leicester council estate ... a brilliant, heartbreaking debut that perfectly captures the delirious highs and bruising lows of intoxicating friendship. What made me fall for The Things We Thought We Knew is its quintessentially British humour, which recalls Joanna Cannon's brilliant The Trouble With Goats and Sheep or Sue Townsend and Nina Stibbe's books. It's the understand that the most mundane things in life are a rich source of comedy and that they often go hand in hand with every day tragedy ... something truly special and original. Read, weep and laugh.

This intriguing debut gives a voice to the marginalised

Fans of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will love this… A very impressive debut – I’m sure we’ll hear more of Mahsuda Snaith

Brimming with great characters... one to watch

I was impressed by her ability to use small instances and quiet character traits as grenades to expose larger universal truths. Due in June, her new novel The Things We Thought We Knew is about chronic pain, being inside, and stillness, and it will, like Mahsuda’s shorter fiction, be warm, effusive, and nuanced.

In a small council flat on the Westhill Estate in Leicester a teenage girl, Ravine Roy, has barely left her room for 10 years, confined to her bed by chronic pain syndrome. On her 18th birthday, her doting Amma (mother) gives her a notebook and tells her to start a pain diary, but instead Ravine begins to write to her best childhood friend Marianne who disappeared 10 years earlier. Though that sounds very dark there's a lightness and humour to this debut and the character of Amma, who moved from Bangladesh to marry only to be abandoned to bring up Ravine alone, is a delight.

Some of the most affecting writers – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Eimear McBride, Anne Tyler – have a knack for tackling tragedy through domestic detail and their characters’ everyday humour; Snaith is one of those writers.

Snaith’s debut fuses life’s big themes with daily minutiae as it tells the story of Ravine, stuck in her mother’s council flat suffering from chronic pain syndrome since the disappearance of her childhood best friend ... A voice of the next generation.

Intriguing

One of the best new books

A considered debut which grapples with themes of pain and memory ... though the premise sounds dark, the novel's light and accessible voice provides a refreshing take on council estate life.

This won't disappoint

A great thing to read

A resonant, insightful look at the way the truths of the past can challenge the promise of the future

The novel centres on 18-year-old Ravine, bedridden since a traumatic incident involving her best friend on a Leicester council estate ... There is a freshness to the writing

A moving tale

Simultaneously fabulous and tragic, Swan Song is an incredibly accomplished debut

Our generation’s The Secret History

Triumphant debut…remarkable

A vivid debut … based on ten years of research, this is a dazzling read that’s been worth the wait

Stunning... It’s probably one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever owned

Hypnotically fascinating

The book is dripping with atmosphere and character and is such a pleasure to read.

Pure pleasure

She deftly gives us an insight into their inner lives... while creating defined personalities that resonate and intrigue. Lyrical and fascinating, the fact that this is Greenberg-Jephcott's debut is astounding.

A stunning debut novel that seamlessly blends history, fact and fiction in this imaginative re-telling of the life of novelist Truman Capote

A brilliant first novel

A slick debut pulled off with brio, Swan Song is glamorous, vivid and sometimes even daring in its intelligence

A dazzling read

Greenberg-Jephcott’s debut is fizzing with energy and ideas…The novel has style and substance in spades.

With a grounding in history, it is a fascinating read about the deepest secrets of an iconic author.

Intoxicating

Swan Song is utterly divine.It swept me up and I just couldn't put it down ... it is the writing in this debut novel that astounds most of all. It is vivid, addictive and whips up a terrific portrait of a deeply contradictory and complex man, contrasting scenes from his unorthodox childhood with those from the gilded bubble he ended up in that he lanced through his own actions.

A sumptuous look at the icons of Manhattan's high society scene in the mid-20th century ... An immersive readthat will have you questioning real histories versus the ones we create for ourselves.

He offers the reader a masterful study of a mind devoted to fairness… The Children Act is also a fascinating, painstakingly researched look inside the judicial process… Conveyed in crisp prose, this attention to detail elevates the moral conundrums…beyond the sensationalism lesser authors might have pursued. It is, in all respects, a novel that is carefully judged.

It explores the tension between cool-headed secularism and ardent belief. It is at times preposterous – and yet it has a magical readability and is slender enough to read in one intense, absorbing sitting.

In typical McEwan style, The Children Act is unputdownable and hauntingly beautiful.

The Children Act is a…sophisticated exploration of how society treats children and how children’s welfare can be considered in the complex world in which we live, where issues about how children should be raised are not subject to consensus.

If you have any unanswered letters on your desk, McEwan’s latest will have you grabbing your pen pronto.

The Children Act shows McEwan as a master of fiction who strives to teach us how to live.

Powerful and moving.

Taut, sparing and effortless, this is another exquisitely wrought novel from the master of the novella.

A subtly musical arrangement of urgently topical issues…it may be read at a sitting, but resonates for much longer.

It’s absorbing and, almost a novella, it doesn’t outstay its welcome.

Definitely one of the best books I have read this year.

This is a wonderful read with sharp, crystalline prose and, together with a superb moral dilemma, this is a beautiful and moving story.

Offering a window into a compelling world of life or death dilemmas, this is told in prose as polished as you’d expect.

The book is bursting of beautiful writing. You’ll want to read it all over again.

A story of human behavior told in a raw, uncluttered, unforgiving way.

Renowned author McEwan manages to surprise throughout this book, right to the last page.

A story of human behavior told in a raw, uncluttered, unforgiving way – and we could all have done with another couple of hundred pages.

McEwan writes in taut, sparing and effortless prose.

Ian McEwan writes stories of exquisite precision and clarity. This one is ace.

A page-turning novel

As one has come to expect, McEwan sets up the moral issues with delicacy and precision.

Ian McEwan is at his most compelling with the story of Fiona Maye… Awesome

A wonderfully readable and thought-provoking book

A short novel that will linger in your mind for a long time

Another beautifully written masterpiece

relevant, emotive, moving, this is beautifully written and a guaranteed page turner

One of our best authors at his best.

One of my favourite authors… McEwan’s fascination with judicial issues, with music and poetry, and with the moral conundrum of how far you place your religious beliefs above the life of someone you love, all feature in this book which will leave you thinking long after you have finished it.

It's an enjoyable and often surprising novella.

It asks fundamental questions in a sober, intelligent way about the choices we make and our blindness when it comes to our beliefs.

Here he is again: vulnerable, insightful, passionate and utterly in control. He’s amazing.