Tellkamp depicts the grotesque idiosyncrasies of the GDR's bureaucracy. He speaks with the slowness and sobriety that comes with growing up in a system where the wrong word at the wrong time can set one's existence ablaze...he displays masterfully the intellectual shackles and the sheer suffocation the younger generation of intellectuals must have felt in the twilight of the GDR

Memories and impressions grow wild across the lattice of the plot, bringing the symphonic book to - but never over - the brink of cacophony

The awfulness of life under the socialist regime is brilliantly done

A lush tapestry of characters, composed of a thousand scenes and situations, and punctuated by poetic digressions, The Tower brings a German ghost to life . . . The Tower stands as a monument against forgetting

In Mike Mitchell's English, Tellkamp's prose is polished, vivid and observationally acute

Set in the ivory tower inhabited by the educated Dresden bourgeoisie, Uwe Tellkamp's The Tower paints a grandiose panorama of the demise of the GDR

So blunt, so radical, so void of illusion - life in the GDR has never before been portrayed in such a meticulous way . . . The struggle for materials, the camp mentality, and the ubiquitous mistrust: the GDR rises again in all of its now-almost-forgotten guises

There's no way to recommend The Tower enough

Chosen by Boyd Tonkin

Marvellous

[Adam Johnson] serves up six sinewy stories that shock and surprise in his edgy, inviting Fortune Smiles . . . compulsively readable.

[A] bold and deeply wise collection

Startlingly, blazingly original.

[A] riveting collection of short stories ... darkly imagined, slightly surreal

Exhilarating ... His mastery of setting simply wowed me.

Marked by the conflicts of heart and mind, and the exuberant quality of its compassionate prose.

Compulsively readable ... Johnson serves up six sinewy stories that shock and surprise.

A rare combination of inventiveness, intellectual pyrotechnics and emotional sophistication ... these stories are treasures.

Bittersweet, elegant, full of ward-won wisdom: this is no ordinary book either.

Hefty and memorable ...the stories provide one of the truest satisfactions of reading: the opportunity to sing into worlds we otherwise know little or nothing about.

Terrific. Shows exactly why Johnson is rated as one of the hottest writers of his generation.

The perfect antidote to Trump.

This book is a compelling study of the relationship between artist and spectator, and how suffering feeds into art, and he’s made of it a bravura performance… Extraordinary.

A haunting, intense and Man Booker International prize-winning novel from a great writer.

Incredibly fast paced, and the dialogue comes at you like a machine gun… It is powerful in its own right.

Abrasive, unexpected and eventually heartbreaking, it is a masterclass in characterisation and structure, and it beat off some exceptionally strong competition to win the prize… A Horse Walks into a Bar is quite unlike any other Grossman book except in one important respect: it’s another masterpiece.

Excellent.

Pitch-perfect black comedy