A book that the reader devours quickly, ponders slowly, and forgets not at all-Moving and inspiring

E.R. Braithwaite's postwar novel about a black teacher fighting to win the respect of white pupils in a school in the East End of London is a milestone in the campaign for racial equality

It is the noblest, most moving, least sentimental account of life in a modern school and of a teacher's struggles with his pupils and with himself that I have come across

Suffused with humane depth, funny, affecting, deftly plotted ... a novel of magnificent accomplishment

Brooklyn moved me more than any other book this year

A beautifully crafted work that transformed ordinary lives into something extraordinary

No book this year gave me greater pleasure

Not a sentence or a thought out of place. It takes over as his finest fiction to date

Remarkable freshness and immediacy ... with a lovely comedic lightness

A lovely, thoughtful book ... alive with authentic detail, moved along by the ripples of affection and doubt that shape any life: a novel that offers the reader serious pleasure

Tremendously moving and powerful

There is such elegant subtlety to this story

The Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano claims to have written a version of the same novel throughout his career; in a sense so has Petterson, but his anguished precision is such that no one should complain

Illuminated by a clear and insightful knowledge of what it means to be human... Petterson is really a masterful depictor of contemporary life

I Refuse is, despite its apparent realism, a nearly magical literary experience... It simply does not get much better than this

Petterson confirms his reputation as Scandinavia's leading realist writer...the heart-rending contrast between power and powerlessness, silence and speech is anchored in every word in these pages. And in the reader’s soul

A masterpiece...at least as good as Out Stealing Horses... Intimate, shocking, demanding, raw

Norwegian literature's clearest shining star...a masterful novel about friendship, violence and destruction

A moving, complex short novel that is richer and more satisfying than most books several times its length

The suspense isn’t in the plot but the prose, with its extraordinary looping sentences

A harrowing account of childhood, of friendship, and of family disruption… Precise, scrupulous and emotionally intense… Peterson is a skilled storyteller… An admirable and honest novel.

With an enchanting, poetic language Rachel Joyce writes about the fundamental questions of life and death.

Like Harold Fry, Queenie is delightful and dark. Death, duty and regret shadow nearly every page, but the darkness is not unrelenting; there is humor, and there is light.

This lovely book is full of joy. Much more than the story of a woman’s enduring love for an ordinary, flawed man, it’s an ode to messy, imperfect, glorious, unsung humanity ... Her love song is for us. Thank you, Rachel Joyce.

[A] deeply affecting novel…Culminating in a shattering revelation, her tale is funny, sad, hopeful: She’s bound for death, but full of life.

A moving, lyrical read about life, love and saying goodbye. this is a companion story to the similarly entrancing The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but could be read alone.