"Polesso’s writing is brisk and fresh, and she captures the bleak human comedy of the myriad ways we mess up when it comes to matters of the heart..."

"A film version must be on the cards..."

"There’s too little that’s fresh here, and much of it is implausible..."

"the chapters that resulted are tantalisingly powerful, but there are simply not enough of them — a fuller overhaul was arguably required..."

"this ménage à trois is heartfelt, but should be messier..."

"Asking big questions, this is fantasy for those who like their violent horror breezily tempered by philosophy...."

"these vivid passages feel like first-hand reportage..."

"Hillary Clinton’s life is brilliantly reimagined in Sittenfeld’s enjoyable sixth novel..."

"I wouldn’t be surprised if this pacy and emotive story finds itself better suited to the screen..."

"A European arbitrator leading Middle East negotiations grieves for his wife in a low-key but profound novel about human frailty..."

"Readers will stay with Swarup for these vibrant creations, and for the depth of her insights..."

"The Snow White tales that Tatar presents here are not as slick as the confections of the Grimms and Disney...."

"It is weird, and Lacey has fun with the weirdness..."

"it’s a likeable if unchallenging novel, at times genuinely warm and witty..."

"Starritt’s descriptions of conflict are shocking. But he becomes less sure-footed when the two characters start moralising about war..."

"Heartache and melancholy are knotted with uneasy eroticism in Garth Greenwell’s new novel..."

"This witty modern classic is perfect lockdown reading..."

"A summer sizzler set in suburban Surrey..."

"Providence is such a blast you almost overlook just how clever it is. ..."

"Told in an enchanting, confessional first-person..."

"a gripping wartime thriller, driven by two memorable heroines..."

" Jackson’s writing crackles and sparks with startling insights and descriptions..."

"this is a novella suffused with quietness, regret and, eventually, consolation..."

"Mathieu builds the lives of these bored youngsters with such attention and authenticity that the reader truly cares about them..."

"My Dark Vanessa is an earnest novel..."

"this very English scandal has wit and invention to spare..."

"there are glimmers of real talent..."

"The humour is so vivid, with so many laugh-out-loud moments..."

"rather beautiful in its effortlessly readable melancholy..."

"Marina Lewycka touches on the social issues without being heavy-handed..."

"insightful, poignant and at times hilarious..."

"A winner..."

"This slyly comic novel is a great dissection of class and provilege..."

"Highfire is deliciously funny at times. In a sea of forgettable modern fantasy titles, it offers moments of genuine originality..."

"It is a promising scenario, but it slowly evaporates in confusion and there is something sterile and charmless about it..."

"Outspoken and defiant musings on dating, renting, running out of money – and caring for a parent..."

"A somewhat heavy-handed satirical work..."

"Now and again a joke lands – but these jokes are saturation-bombed in the manner of a boss-fight in Ikaruga...."

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

"A story can do and be whatever it wants, this collection seems to be saying..."

"it envelops the reader in a warm cosy glow, in which the shadows are always lengthening on a late afternoon in high summer..."

"(a) wise and moving memoir..."

"the real healing in this book seems to lie in Roberts’s gift for turning the stuff of the everyday into something so mesmerising that it lifts you into another realm..."

"His writing style may be as pompous as his reputation and as camp as his collection of designer kaftans, but such stories about the fashion greats make for perfect lockdown gossip..."

"It is interesting to see how pragmatically humane the navy could be, particularly in peacetime..."

"Love, adventure, skulduggery, moral outrage — what a story..."

"Disrupting the world — from a small bedroom in Hounslow..."

"The glorious details — lamprey cooking included — are what make it a pleasure..."

"The Snow White tales that Tatar presents here are not as slick as the confections of the Grimms and Disney...."

"In this compellingly candid set of autobiographical essays, the Iranian American author recalls ‘trying on and discarding selves’..."

"We learn from him that memory cannot authenticate, or sustain, an identity: it can only call it into question..."

"(a) remarkable, moving tribute to a house and a father,..."

"Friendship with Kurt Cobain, spats with Liam Gallagher and a brutal chronicle of addiction … the Screaming Trees singer’s candid memoir..."

"as witty as it is problematic..."

"Syrian banker Louai Al Roumani offers a compelling guide for leaders grappling with the pandemic..."

"Reading this marvellous diary leaves me with the impression that whatever the future holds, with young people like McAnulty coming to the fore it will be in safer hands..."

"(a) caustic movie memoir from a gnomic genius..."

"What Have I Done? is heartbreaking and brutal in its honesty..."

"A writer’s struggles in a remote corner of Scotland make for remarkable reading..."

"Inferno is a haunting, eloquent evocation of becoming a stranger to yourself..."

"(a) thoroughly gripping biography..."

"her story (is) worth telling, and Ball is definitely up to the task..."

"he lifts the lid on that underworld of despair, degradation and needless death..."

"Gewen seeks to escape this cartoon depiction of Kissinger, absurd in its Manichaean extremes...."

"A recently discovered cache of letters from the Blitz are funny, moving, despairing, erotic — and always inspirational..."

" a powerful tribute to human fortitude and imagination – and perfect reading for incarcerated times..."

"It is a story that deserves to be told...."

"The physician who treated China’s leaders is a candid witness to corrupt power in Olivia Cox-Fill’s biography..."

"Blake Gopnik’s life of the artist gets behind the glare of his fame to track the dance between art and commerce..."

"This book is as much a story about the children who escaped schizophrenia’s cruel clutches as it is about those who fell victim to it..."

"In sharp but sympathetic terms, and with an eye for vivid detail, Brand revives the strange and colourful siblings of the poet’s grandparents’ generation..."

"The most compelling material here is about the restaurant world..."