'Monumental ... Fugitive Pieces is the most important book I have read for forty years'

John Berger, Observer

'This is a novel to lose yourself in; let the language pour over you, depositing its richness like waves lapping sand onto a beach. Michaels is a novelist of unusual and compelling power'

Erica Wagner, The Times

'Essential reading, both for its exceptional literary craft and for its exemplary and inspiring humanity'

Spectator

'All except a handful of contemporary novels are dwarfed by its reach, its compassion, its wisdom ... A book to read many times'

Geoff Dyer, Independent