A family tapestry rich in good humor, sensuality and comical human imperfection. Each character's story moves back and forth in time, shimmering with life.

New York Times Book Review

The plot's interplay of flashbacks and digressions, which prompt bright dialogue and dark complications, recalls Matisse's line and palette . . . Sentences can be relished in isolation, like fine brushwork.

New Yorker

Splendid . . . Trapido's wit can swiftly wound, but does not alienate the reader's delight . . . [She] carries along the tale with great descriptive gusto.

Times Literary Supplement

Excellent--funny, sexy, glowing . . . an unobtrusively artful book. There is something Nabokovian in [her]determination to enchant . . . Trapido casts a faery light over the materials of everyday life.

Time Out London

Rather like being bombarded by sequins.

Anthony Thwaite, The Observer