When Selby decides to attack, it is with the shock of a practised mugger and with the speed and economy of a poet

Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists ... to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America

'Rendered in prose whose steadiness and transparency throw the dark turbulence of what is happening into damning relief'

'A very gripping story . . . the reader is drawn in inexorably to discover what horror lies at the heart of it . . . an apocalyptic fable for today'

'Many respectable judges would put Edric in the top ten of British novelists currently at work . . . as a writer, he specialises in the delicate hint and the game not given away'

'It will be surprising if this year sees a more disturbing or haunting novel'

'Stunning . . . evocatively brings to life the stifling humidity and constant rainfall of the Congo'

Devour it

First-rate fiction . . . sharp, with great empathy