The perfect, absorbing read for poolside pleasure

It is clearly the product of a remarkable intelligence, combined with a gift for observation and deduction

A welcome return, for this writer, to novel form, and as a fresh, sophisticated take on the ever-popular dysfunctional family saga

Anne Enright has all she needs in terms of imagination and technique and she's a tremendous phrase maker

Enright ambushes as memory does, drawing you into an event and then questioning its reality

At a time when everyone is mirroring everyone else, Enright's style of writing remains singular and instantly identifiable

This is at once an exciting and an intelligent novel

A colourful story colourfully told

Fondly and delicately pieces back together what the deconstructors put asunder

Displaying a playful exuberance wonderfully at odds with the dry, jargon-strewn tradition of academic criticism, this deft, slender volume analyses how novelists pull rabbits out of hats