I loved Painter of Silence. It was like entering a dream world that became more and more real, until I actually needed to get back to it. Her writing is so gentle and beautiful and takes you so confidently on a journey. I let myself be carried away. Heaven.

Esther Freud, author of Lucky Break, on Painter of Silence

Harding's prose is a quiet storm of imagery and emotions... The rubble and ruin of post-war Romania is tenderly rendered... it's a heartrending predicament expertly realised. Painter of Silence is further testament to a talent gradually sculpting an impressive body of work. It proves as smooth and serene as a slow incoming tide; the story washing over the pages until the reader is immersed in its depths. This is fiction of the most graceful kind.

The Independent on Sunday (UK) on Painter of Silence

Austere but atmospheric debut... [Harding's] accounts of Cave's daily struggle for survival are powerful, and she reveals myriad gradations of light and color in what first appears a blank and unchanging landscape.

New Yorker on The Solitude of Thomas Cave

Deeply affecting... [with] scenes of devastating pathos.

New York Times Book Review on The Solitude of Thomas Cave