'Said's last book is a series of dazzling case studies exploring the idea of lateness in a range of composers, writers and artists'

London Review of Books

'What Said stands for - critical intelligence, high art and the preservation of the language - must be at the centre of our lives. This book is a fine monument to his life and work'

Hanif Kureishi

'Gracefully unquiet, probing and wise ... Said's own elegiac masterpiece of late style'

Financial Times

'His own late style, if it is acceptable to call it that, mixes an easy mastery of material with an unquenched desire to preserve difficulties'

Guardian