Selby's work has the power, the intimacy with suffering and morality, the honesty and moral urgency of Dostoevsky's

'Britain's funniest and least politically correct author'

'Captivating storytelling peppered with perceptive humour and the occasional philosophical gem. This is A.A. Gill at his best - funny and in full flight'

'Reverberates with low humour and lurid, extravagant sex...every page explodes with the gaudy colours of exotic metaphor'

'The wit and bravura are what one expects from him, but he has added a broader emotional range and engaging characters'

'Firing off his caustic, cynical observations and witty epigrams, he comes across as a modern day Oscar Wilde, a curious mix of naked aggression and high camp'

'Genuinely enjoyable, often funny and sometimes touching'

Tender, taut, full of insight, yet with a darkness at its centre

Excellently done; the minutiae of domestic landscapes, the lunatic irrationality of family quarrels, the torments of sibling rivalry

Funny, heart-hammering, wise...superb entertainment

A terrific writer... She's changed my perception on life

A classic of contemporary Americana... variously funny and horrifying and finally, quietly, terribly moving

A book that should join those few that every literate person will have to read

A novelist who knows what a proper story is . . . [Tyler is] not only a good and artful writer, but a wise one as well

In her ninth novel she has arrived at a new level of power