This is a remarkable novel, elegant, wise, and beautifully constructed. I loved the book, and admired the work and spark that went into it.

Impressive ... Moore crafts a clever cycle of interconnected short stories about players in New York City's music industry.

The kind of book you want to read twice. The first time you read it for the well-told story, the second time for another look at the inventive way [Moore] tells it.

Imagine having happened upon Dylan singing in Harvard Square, or having caught one of Joni Mitchell's early shows at an empty club. This is how I felt reading Liz Moore's lyrical and powerful debut novel, like I was witnessing a timeless artist on the verge of transcendence. The Words of Every Song is a virtuoso performance. These beautifully rendered characters are melodies that echo in your head, chords that reverberate in your heart, and, long after you've turned the last page, you can still hear the audience calling for an encore.

Sweet, wistful, artfully arranged: like the best mix tape anyone ever made for you.

A thoroughly enjoyable novel, quietly accomplished.

It's more than gratifying to open [Tremain's] new novel, Lily, and immediately see that she is still writing at full throttle... This is the literary equivalent of all your favourite Christmas telly programmes rolled into one... Lily's story is a winter's tale: a cosy pageturner that will whisk you away from the 21st century while engaging and sharpening your mind.

No writer can inhabit the skin of a historical period and bring it so pulsatingly alive as Rose Tremain. No one can break your heart quite like this. In this compassionate, generous, soaringly beautiful book, Tremain is at the top of her game. Read and be transported

Lily is an ingenious blend of historical novel, moral fable and fairy story. Tremain, a pre-eminent historical novelist, vividly evokes the disparate social worlds of Victorian London... Lily is a tale not just of revenge but of redemption, which carries an intense emotional charge. Tremain again displays her supreme ability to create characters who are at once totally true to the period and instantly identifiable to the modern reader

Lily is the perfect heroine, courageous and bold

Full of evocative detail and memorable characters

Lily is a wonderful creation - diffident and trying to find her place in the world... But it's Tremain's attention to detail that really sets this novel apart

Terrific

An authentically melodramatic whydunnit set in Victorian London

Tremain has created a feisty, rebellious heroine in the style of Jane Eyre and Maggie Tulliver, in a setting that owes much to Dickens... a very engaging read

A heart-wrenching tale that blends historical detail, moral fable and fairy story with a powerful heroine at its helm

Fans of Dickens's heart-tugging Little Dorrit should enjoy this powerful exploration of the human urge to seek places of sanctuary in a pitiless, fickle world. Perfect fireside reading - but better keep a hankie ready

Tremain brilliantly conjures up the atmosphere of Victorian London while the story is cleverly structured to keep the reader guessing to the end