Rich in detail and filled with acute observations, this novel movingly examines the absences eating away at the core of all of its characters

Sunday Telegraph

As beautifully written and pleasurable as anything I've read ... Gurnah's portrait is the work of a maestro

Guardian

This is an impressive and deeply serious book, a careful and often heartfelt exploration of the way memory inevitably consoles and disappoints us

Sunday Times

An absorbing novel about abandonment and loss ... Gurnah writes beautifully, with the satisfying assurance of someone who knows how to achieve his effects without undue fuss but with absolute precision

Daily Telegraph