‘Wildly creative, stylistically assured, and still as relevant today as it was when it was first published, dem is a biting, moralising novel that requires its readers to conduct the final reckoning.’

‘Leky is not just a gifted storyteller, she is a compassionate one, and her ability to draw readers deep into the core of human existence and share with them the knowledge that everything really is alright, is a gift to be savoured. ‘

‘Less a story of broken language than of how Hudes remade her language to fit her world, this is a remarkable memoir that is full of the joys of resistance, and the power of the family to survive and thrive.’

‘Fraia’s prose is at turns meditative, mournful, and dreamlike; both a detached voiceover commentary, and a rough confession of disappointed desires. In the short, sharp sentences there is humanity, but little judgement. Things happen. Decisions are made.’

‘This book, on the surface about two misfits in Japanese society, is actually a universal allegory, raising the perennial questions: what can we hope for from life, how do we relate to others along the way, and if we get what we thought we wanted, will it satisfy us?’

‘A debut to be savoured, one that heralds the arrival of a distinct and vital new voice.’

‘An unknown and omniscient third-person narrator. Silent communion with an unhearing lover. Jarring cuts to frantic stream of consciousness at the most desperate moments of drama. Here is a modern novel –- a melting pot of the finest literary tactics.’

‘Grown Ups is tiny but mighty. At 154 pages, it will take up very little space on your overstuffed bookshelf, but don’t be fooled: this novel, for all that it is lightly handled by Marie Aubert, hits hard, and it stays with you.’

‘In exploring all the complexities and distortions of memory and identity, friendship and loss, Bastašić weaves a wondrous web that captures the reader in the best way possible.’

‘Like her fiction debut The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am—a gem of a novella centred around the musings of its aging, eccentric narrator—Skomsvold’s latest work makes for a memorable reading experience.’

‘With this collection, we meet a writer with the skill and confidence to capture the disquiet of disintegrating truths. It’s the right time, and the right place, for such leaps and scrabblings at the edge of possibility.’

‘‘A stirring and accomplished debut from an essential new voice, Cold New Climate questions what it is we need to stay alive; it dares recast what it is to be human. Reserve a space on those end-of-year lists now.’

‘This is a spiky, timeless, and timely collection of psychologically astute speculative fiction. Like an intoxicated night out (remember those?) you’ll be swayed by the carefree amusements, surprised with the twists and turns, and left with a hangover of gnawing disquiet. And you won’t – ever – be bored.’

‘A book that leaves you with gratitude, a sense of hope, and a feeling of tenderness for its author and for the miracle of life itself.’

‘The fifty-first sound, then, is one for which I have no name: the sound of Polly Barton’s astonishing book resonating with my own experience, and making me feel — long beyond the time of reading — unusually, wholly, understood.’

‘You could toss Bitterhall into the heart of an active volcano and it would emerge defiant and intact, brushing ash from its pages, daring you to do it again.’

‘Havana Year Zero is, some longueurs notwithstanding, like a set of Russian dolls; its many layers fit together in a firm and satisfying way. And there is something rather special to discover when you reach the end of the book. A truth, you might say.’

‘hantoms is a book alive to the moment, brimming with purpose. It has much to say about the displacement suffered by both parent and child when circumstances conspire against both.’

‘Harvest is an unparalled masterpiece, steeped in both artistry and compassion. In how she interrogates the bruised lives of her characters, while at the same time toying so audaciously with the constraints of the narrative form, Harding once again makes a case for being one of our greatest living novelists.’

‘Dryland is a shining, drizzled, indie love-song of queer joy; a bruised deep blue B-side to consume in one sitting then set on repeat.’