An undisputed masterpiece

A poet, a rebel, a philosopher, a genius far ahead of his time, [Stevenson] has given us some of the most powerful characters of English literature

What I didn't anticipate was the power of Stevenson's prose. His ability to bring everything vividly to life is still astonishing. It was probably the first time for me that reading became as exciting as messing about. The pirate has a dangerous glamour to him, a degenerate dandyism, something, once I was in my teens, that I would admire in people like David Bowie and Sid Vicious'

Reading Treasure Island at the age of seven or eight was my real awakening as a reader... it is all as frightening and exciting when read for the umpteenth time in middle age as when first discovered in childhood

I believe Treasure Island to be Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece. The very opening - the murder-bent Blind Pew, tapping his way towards the isolated inn - is designed to make our flesh creep. Long John Silver is a great literary creation. Re-reading the book, it gripped me as firmly now as it did under the torch-lit blankets 60 years ago

How perfectly structured and paced it is, every episode carefully weighted, every chapter end a cliffhanger, scarcely a word wasted

Scary, funny and loaded with the kind of unforgettable characters that make all writers want to try harder

A fine meditation on love and loss

Mankell carefully maps the changing seasons in beautifully stark prose

The cool, enigmatic tone is reminiscent of Paul Auster

Vivid prose...translated beautifully

Present a spare tale of metaphors and symbols to argue that, in the middle of life, we are in death but occasionally, and happily, the opposite too