Russell Hoban is our Ur-novelist, a maverick voice that is like no other.

Worth rejoicing in ... a banquet of whimsical delights. Each Russell Hoban book is surprising ... but you also know what you're getting, which is curiosity, wonder and a world-encompassing empathy.

This wonderful, life-saving fantasy places Russell Hoban where he has got to be - among the greatest, timeless novelists.

Crackles with witty detail, mordant intelligence and self-deprecating irony.

[Turtle Diary] has medicinal qualities. I only need to think about it and I'm in a better mood.

A story about the recovery of life ... Like other cult writers - Salinger for instance, or Vonnegut - Hoban writes about ordinary people making life-affirming gestures in a world that threatens to dissolve in madness.

This lovely human fable seems to me one of the best things of its kind - a fine and touching achievement.

Tragicomic pleasure ... Metaphysical speculation undercut by dry humour is the signature style of Russell Hoban.

Every bit as charming and perceptive as its predecessor

Very funny indeed and actually very heartwarming ... A great read

A warm, funny and charming novel that transcends its locale

King of Irish Mammy humour

Up to her oxters in a clatter of domestic misadventures that would leave her urban literary parallel, Ross O'Carroll Kelly, in the ha'penny place