A welcome return by the great Shane Connaughton in a novel that shines with truth, humanity and insight on every page. An immense reading pleasure.

A beautiful book, funny and insightful; a completely engaging coming of age story.

Comic fiction at its finest . . . Connaughton brings . . . such lyricism and fondness that his writing is as radiant as it is witty - but there is shade here, too, and the degree of poignancy is brilliantly judged.

An engrossing, calmly constructed novel . . . Connaughton's beautiful sentences draw us through a fertile story that brims with insight, narrative skill and a compelling feeling for landscape, reminding the reader that the past is never as simple as we think we remember it. . . . A flint-hard ear for dialogue . . . its characters leak the pure earthiness which church and barracks never quite repressed.

Connaughton is strong on dialogue . . . abounds with enjoyable anecdotes and flavourful details . . . an intriguing picture of Ireland in the 1950s.

Immersing yourself in Connaughton’s Cavan is a real and rare joy, like calling forth the spirits of two late Johns, the humour and humanity of John B Keane, allied to the insight and truth of John McGahern

A hugely entertaining, fascinating book.

A beautifully written tale of loss, love and handwritten exhibition labels

Packed with a wonderfully drawn cast of eccentric neighbours and friends who make up their extended family, Bray spins a witty and tender story from this quirky starting point. The power of memory, the impact of grief and the importance of family are all explored as slowly revealed secrets intensify the novel’s emotional punch.

Tender and touching, Bray gets to the heart of how grief can stunt and stall lives.

A beautifully touching and moving read

Compassionate and hugely enjoyable

A heartwarmingly beautiful story and an absolute joy of a novel. Five stars just doesn’t seem enough.

A poignant story of a father and daughter relationship.

A beautifully written and emotionally insightful coming-of-age tale

Segal excels at character minutiae, switching protagonists from page to page but still doing each one justice… By the end of the book, I felt I would recognise these people waking down Haverstock Hill, albeit that I might not want to stop for a chat… As a comedy of manners though, The Awkward Age is entertaining and intelligently written

Francesca Segal gets the tricky mother/teenage daughter relationship just right in her sharply observant The Awkward Age.

Segal’s writing is a joy – funny, wise, and sharply observant... Terrific

By turns tender, brutal, mordantly funny, and heartbreaking, The Awkward Age is preternaturally knowing about fractured families, and young, middle-aged, and elder love. Every sentence is gorgeously, masterfully written. I loved it as I’ve loved no other recent novel. Francesca Segal is a major novelist

A beguiling story about the oceans between family members, generations, and continents and the journeys we make to reach each other on the other side

There are moments in Francesca Segal’s novel when you are so caught up in the characters that you want to shout at them as though they are your own friends… Think rows, sulks, unexpected relationships and sweet romance all dissected with an elegantly forensic precision

Terrific, sharply observed… Segal gets the precarious mother-teenage daughter relationship spot on

Segal’s is a clever, cruel, redemptive, psychologically acute novel that made this reader glad to have been at school just too early for Facebook, selfies and an “online community” baying for news of your latest boyfriend

Thoughtful and beautifully observed

A gripping foray into second families

Thanks to its occasional moments of emotional veracity, The Awkward Age will be praised as a worthy successor to Segal’s debut

Francesca Segal is an accomplished writer. She neatly describes the clash of cultures between the academically rigorous education enjoyed by Nathan and Gwen’s freer, no-holds-barred comprehensive school. There is an engaging and colourful cast of characters… Segal vividly conveys the difficulties faced by imperfectly blended families

This is a warm, funny book dealing with a most modern matter

A brilliant, thoroughly modern family drama from the author of The Innocents

Punchy… Segal tackles her subject with humour and intelligence and a wealth of memorable characters

Exuberant and entertaining… The rest of the narrative then considers how the competing needs and duties of its four main characters can be met, handled and resolved. It does so with brio, insight and empathy, and with carefully modulated comic energy

A compelling story on the complexities that come with a very modern family that we just couldn’t put down

Love, loss, new beginnings and saying goodbye, it's all in here. A moving read

A terrific novel.

[Segal's] descriptions are spare and unerring; everyday family interactions are observed warmly and yet with precision