The most arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years

Hilarious and unpredictable - and always brilliant

Astonishing.This marks him out as a writer of great promise

Beautiful, arresting, precise...a compelling creation

An electrifying masterpiece

City of Bohane is a book fizzing with energy, juiced up on the possibilities of language and replete with a plot

Exuberant, spine-tinglingly atmospheric... This hyper-real world stuffed with overblown violence and all manner of cartoon-like grotesques is certainly a highly entertaining place to lose yourself in

Exhilarating ...this novel confirms the arrival of a fresh and original voice in Irish literature... Hugely entertaining and original

The prose is sizzling, its molecules rocked by the force of collision...outrageously talented author...The power of the writing - of the writer's imagination - is the siren call that hooks you...It stuns you with its daring...but it works

Addictive first novel...this slangy, plosive-packed prose is what makes the book a success...an expert manipulation of syntax keeps things zingy...it is a plus point that the dystopia bears no allegorical weight, thriving purely as an imaginary realm to be taken at face value

This is a darkly funny tale of gangland warfare in Ireland that reads like a fast-paced film

It's hilarious and visceral

The plot is engrossing, with strong bones, yet sinuous and surprising... Barry plays with words with a manic joy and its this use of language that draws the reader in

He makes a bold statement, not only about his considerable talent but also his plot to upend the realm of modern Irish literature with a work of such singular scope and voice that it is bound to be the talk of book circles this year and possibly beyond

vVolent and bleak and yet somehow full of romance, the driving story and powerful use of language make for a heady experience

Rampaging

Knocked me out, big time... The characters are demented but also weirdly familiar; an amazing book altogether

Humour, moxie and a real love of the lingo... A riot of music, gang warfare and a hilarious patois

Bohane is a post-apocalyptic, low-tech, dog-eat-dog Irish city - and it's mesmerising. The characters' coarse language is vividly poetic, and there's a peculiar optimism about their lives that comes of living in an atmosphere of heart-stopping brutishness. A unique and fascinating book

The prose flows easily, underpinned with a wry humour that counters the harsh, modern realism

Totally awesome!

I would recommend this book in a heartbeat...young or old - it's just brilliant!

In the safe hands of none other than Mr. Steven Spielberg, this is your last chance to read the book before the movie hype drowns out the written word. A mixed up dystopian fantasy adventure novel with more nods to 80’s pop culture than even the biggest John Hughes fan will be able to handle, it’s just a whole lot of fun to read

This is one you need to read before EVERYONE knows about it!

Ultimately entertaining, enthusiastic and enjoyable. A real must-have for any collection…a beautifully constructed piece of escapism which will pull you in with such vigour that you miss your train stop.

Powerful and very timely message

This novel's great achievement is to capture the tensions and subtleties of a married life cut short… I read [it] virtually in one sitting, but that's a fairly common experience with Anne Tyler books… I didn't want it to end. Which is also a fairly common Tyler thing.

The Beginner’s Goodbye is a very funny book … every incident is at once recognizably true to life and yet somehow utterly off-kilter.

Brims with wry perceptiveness and rueful humour

Tyler's playful humour imbues this unsentimental portrait of a mismatched marriage

A cleverly observed tale of an imperfect relationship and grief

A bittersweet, utterly beguiling story of love and loss from a brilliant writer

Both compelling and deeply touching, once you start reading you won’t want The Beginner’s Goodbye to end

It begins with one of those sentences that impels you to read on…Tyler’s haunting tale of love and loss is intelligent, unsentimental and often wryly funny

A lovely, stylish way to write a novel about marriage

A beautifully poignant portrait of marriage, loss and grief

Exhibit[s] all the delicious readability that admirers of Tyler expect

Both compelling and deeply touching, once you start reading you won't want The Beginner's Goodbye to end

An emotionally satisfying book with wise and moving moments

Cline [crafts] a fresh and imaginative world from our old toy box ... Cline strikes the nerves of nerd culture as expertly as Andy played that skeleton organ in The Goonies.