Andrea Barrett is in a class by herself. A near-perfect equipoise between smooth storytelling and the suggestion of larger truths

Few writers have mastered the historical novel as [Barrett] has... Her re-creation of time and place remains glittering

This is a meticulously researched novel, and provides an edifying glimpse into an odd, static world during a period when the world outside was anything but static

Beautifully written first novel

Akinti shows us he is a competent craftsman

Written in a clipped, street smart prose, Forest Gate is an assured debut... it is a study in cultural uprootedness and displacement, memorably documented by Akinti

A short but densely textured read...James's gradual, fragile redemption...is very well conveyed. Peter Akinti is also good at conveying a sense of place

I loved this book

A moving and compelling story ... authentic and impressive

To dive into a Wodehouse novel is to swim in some of the most elegantly turned phrases in the English language.

Ogawa is original, elegant, very disturbing. I admire any writer who dares to work on this uneasy territory - we're on the edge of the unspeakable. The stories seem to penetrate right to the heart of the world, and find it a cold and eerie place. Her spare technique is very skilled. Every word is put to work. She sets up a small vibration, a disturbance, which begins quietly and generates wider and wider ripples of unease. There are no narrative tricks, but the stories generate a surprising amount of tension. You feel as if you've touched an icy hand

Ogawa's tales possess a gnawing, erotic edge

Yoko Ogawa is able to give expression to the most subtle workings of human psychology in prose that is gentle yet penetrating.

Each well narrated and haunting novella, about love, obsession and dark humour, has an unpredictable twist of viciousness coupled with compassion