John Irving has been compared to Kurt Vonnegut and J.D. Salinger, but is arguably more inventive than either. Wry, laconic, he sketches his characters with an economy that springs from a feeling for words and a mastery of his craft

Irving writes with a lapidary directness that is unsurpassed by any living writer

It is very satisfying to read a book that is hard to put down, and if this were a more valued criterion, Irving would no doubt by now have received the official accolades he deserves

Vivid, eccentric, memorable

Irving's popularity is not too difficult to understand. His world really is the world according to everyone

Immensely moving and shot through with wit, humour and sadness, this book is addictive

A premier storyteller, master of the tragiocomic and among the first rank of contemporary novelists

Irving is peerless at presenting action, writing without a wasted second

[Raven is] a freak writer, he defies classification. In wilder moments he suggests a loose, lunatic collaboration of Trollope, Ouida and Waugh

Crammed with comedy, suspense and action

Riley's prose often sings, and there are moments of sheer dazzling brilliance here

There was another brilliant curio from Gwendoline Riley, Opposed Positions... Riley writes cool, faintly autobiographical novellas about enigmatic young women who drift, think and write; she wears her influences (Woolf, Fitzgerald, Camus) with impressive insouciance, and this is one of her best

[Riley] shows herself more than up to the job of writing the wasted hinterlands of the human heart

Clean, eminently readable prose and sometimes startling insights

The shifting, uncertain nature of human relationships – and their constant reinterpretation – is reflected in Riley’s understated prose, with moments of intense revelation thrown in like hand grenades.

Utterly compelling and ruthlessly fascinating

A thrilling story that also happens to be true, by a gifted young author... Binet manages it all with beautiful lucidity and...discreet storytelling mastery

Fresh, honest and exciting

Historial fiction for grown-ups

A gripping thriller and a moving testament to the heroes of the Czechoslovakian resistance. Their mission resets the path of history. Binet’s resets the path of the historical novel. He has a bright, bright future.

Brilliant..

Thrilling.

An engrossing literary experiment that still contains enough hard facts to function as a terrific yarn.

Thrilling and engaging...Binet brilliantly builds the tension in the lead up to the assassination attempt, likewise the nerve-shredding aftermath of the incident.... Being so experimental yet so compelling as a writer is a real high-wire act, one only precious few authors have managed. Binet does it dazzlingly here, and I'm excited about what he's going to write next

Mesmeric stuff; history brought to chilling, potent life

A literary tour de force

Binet’s debut is a masterpiece of historical fiction… gripping read

A nail-biting novel, a thorough work of history and, most successfully of all, an exercise in form: a story about the writing of a true story

Compelling

Binet's approach may be new, but his story-telling instincts are nicely old fashioned. Translator Sam Wood does justice to the lucid prose

Is it a novel about the Nazis? Or is it a memoir about a historian trying to write about the Nazis? Somehow, it’s both – and it’s brilliant

A triumph

A must-read for people who have a real interest in the Third Reich … improbably entertaining and electrifyingly modern, a moving work

With its slightly skewed perspective and the relative freshness of its approach, HHhH compels us once again to consider that this, surely, was humanity's lowest point: a war waged, not against those who thwarted Germany's territorial ambitions, but against all that was good and decent in the human soul. In so doing, it confounds those who would decry post-modernism as wilfully obscure, relativistic and lacking in conviction

French newcomer Laurent Binet hits the ground running in the engrossing novel within a novel

A breezily charming novel, with a thrilling story that also happens to be true, by a gifted young author amusingly anguished over the question of how to tell it … In principle there's nothing not to like about Laurent Binet's acclaimed debut, and HHhH is certainly a thoroughly captivating performance

This book fully justifies the lavish praise adorning its author

Dazzling... It's stunningly brilliant

Stunning

Binet provides both context and impressive detail on the eventual assassination of Heydrich