"The book is proof that humour and clarity require sophisticated skill..."

"full of ... casual brilliance and beauty..."

"Marie Kondo’s Kiki & Jax introduces the young reader to a somewhat more privileged adult concern: the art of decluttering..."

"Jeffers conveys the environmental urgency, without giving them nightmares, through beautiful artwork and a sweet, spare story...."

"the themes are universal and the twists offer surprises for all..."

"An Artemis Fowl spin-off is a hit..."

"Lively storytelling blends fairy tale and a romanticised history..."

"This accomplished storyteller ... makes every line work so hard each paragraph positively glows...."

"This monster story is a muddle..."

"her worlds are navigated by characters who stay human to the marrow – flawed, cowardly, doubtful, determined, unprincipled and brave..."

"This imaginative novel, bringing together magic ... a suspenseful challenge and a vivid backstage world of intrigue and romance is original and rich..."

"Translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death with all the fun, dash and grace they need, these letters bear witness to a busily fulfilled — but never unexamined — life..."

" A bold, arresting first book..."

"Pullman nods to the refugee crisis and the state of democracy in his masterly second tale in the Book of Dust series..."

"A boy, a ghost and lots of thrills impress..."

"beautifully illustrated by the Croatian artist Tomislav Tomic..."

"the songwriter has turned his formidable creative powers in a literary direction..."

"A timeless story fit for the approaching season, and for these times...."

"a wise, gripping and skilfully told story..."

"Deadly floods and witch-hunting enthrall ..."

"the thrilling next instalment in the acclaimed Noughts and Crosses series..."

"Thompson's writing is full of heart, warmth and humour but she's not afraid to address thought-provoking questions about the illusion of wealth and what it means to be happy..."

"this is the quirky tale of a blossoming relationship from one of my favourite contemporary picture book creators..."

"McManus is a true master of plot and intrigue, with an ensemble cast of complicated, relatable teenagers...."

"This picture-book reworking of The Twelve Dancing Princesses is a celebration of love and living to the full...."

"Certainly this is a novel for those who like drama heaped on drama, a book for younger readers, but for those who don’t scare easily..."

"She is especially good on difficult relationships, and the gathering trap of liberal identity politics..."

"There are no happy endings in this nastily funny phantasmagoria set in a warped version of England..."

"On Swift Horses is worth reading for the poetry alone..."

"This is a most strange and tormented story, part psychoanalytic confession and part meditation on man’s cruel relationship with nature..."

"In our hyper-satirical age, Eggers’ proposal is just too modest..."

"This lightly sketched tale moves towards an inevitable conclusion ..."

"Grandmothers makes for absorbing, undemanding reading..."

"the best so far of an unmissable series..."

"This collection is luminous and breathtaking, varied and delightful and surprising..."

"Handke’s politics trivialise Bosnian suffering, yet his writing also gives words to the voiceless ordeals long considered too mundane for literature..."

"for the most part he writes with wonderful delicacy and multiplicity..."

"An extraordinary collection of surreal tales takes in time travel, molluscs and monks..."

"Astonishing... a landmark epic..."

"“This Is Happiness” is as full of detours and backward glances as it is of forward motion..."

"a profound tale of certain entropy..."

"(a) darkly transcendent novel filled with phantasmagoric visions, body horror and tortured beings traversing a blasted desert hellscape..."

" a shrewd, skilful tale of loneliness, the search for meaning and a place in the world, and the problems of truly relating to another human being..."

"Here really is a world, thrillingly imagined and under the surface entirely like our own..."

"The strength of O’Brien’s work, apart from lyricism, has always been its reliable specificity...."

"this compilation of his favourite funny stories offers material both hilarious and unusual..."

"the main reason to read Sudden Traveller is simply to bask in Hall’s formidable, righteous language..."

"There are many things in The Topeka School that are more eloquent than words..."

"feels at once more real – because less cartoony – and more sentimental than her earlier books..."

"There’s something pleasurable and astute to be found on every page...."

"Intriguing debut about life as a Ghanaian immigrant..."

"Buenos Aires in the 1960s, home to remnants of the Third Reich in exile, is brought chillingly to life..."

"there is a warmth and a humanity in Aciman’s prose that enraptures with its slow, easy embrace..."

"Andrew Michael Hurley returns to a strange but familiar terrain..."

"Cruz Smith at his best: ace storytelling with dry, laconic dialogue and a crumpled but courageous hero...."

"Wartime Paris is lovingly depicted: the smell of wet leaves, the taste of chicory coffee, the flics in their rain capes, a loaded glance across a café. Most of all, the sense of menace...."

"Intensely human characters, a cracking storyline and vivid scene-setting make The Last Hunt one of Meyer’s best...."

" the attempts to modernise the series with subtle nods to modern popular culture are intriguing..."

"these are books that journey deep into the darkest reaches of human experience and return, fatally wounded, but still eloquent..."