Britain's leading practitioner of black humour

Tom Sharpe serves up the loudest laughs in literary comedy ... He is the great post-Waugh humorist, the Wodehouse who dares plunge into the bottomless vulgarity and hysteria of our times, and a rattling good companion on a train journey.

The funniest novelist writing today

Tom Sharpe is back and he's on cracking form

One of the most widely enjoyed comic writers in Britain ... his position at the heart of British comedy is as assured as that of the seaside postcard

Our funniest living novelist

Reaches a transcendental realm of its own. I couldn't even read it at times, because I was crying and choking with laughter

Sharpe is the funniest novelist currently writing ... I sat curled up with laughter

Alexi Zentner has created a seminal poetic story that resonates in our collective memory of timber, minerals and snow; of ghosts and gods and death; but above all, reminds us of the faith and love and optimism necessary for survival.

Touch is one of those rare novels that simultaneously takes hold of both your imagination and your heart and does not let go. In sharp, startling prose, Alexi Zenter seamlessly weaves the story of Sawgamet and its inhabitants, creating a world of myth and magic, hard truths, aching loss, and spectacular triumphs. It's a gem of a book.

A fantastic story set on the margins of the northern forest, Touch explores the mystery that connects the heart of the wild with human passion. This is a tale of extremes, both marvellous and magical...in the midst of brothels, prospectors, lumberjacks, ghosts, obliterating snowstorms and devastating fires, Zentner strings memory in grave rhythmns, making the sound of love. A beautiful first novel.

Calling up both the brutal conditions...and the tough men who wrestled with them, Zentner tells a lyrical tale conveying both the beauty and the danger of the wilderness.

Alexi Zentner's debut novel is poised to be one of those books that gets people talking... The story is slippery and complex, but told with seemingly effortless ease. Touch is indeed a gem of a book.

Zentner excels in evoking the place and details of domestic life

Touch is Zenter's first novel. It is an enchanting phantasmagoria of the imagination as well as a practical tale of the human lust for gold and the human struggle with implacable nature. All in all, a deeply satisfying read

Truly magical

An affecting debut from a major new talent.

In this sweeping family saga, Zentner delves into the heart of myth and memory. Eerie and beautiful, Touch is a love-song to the power - and brevity - of dreams.