This is a ghost story unlike any other; in fact, 'ghost story' is entirely inadequate a description for this densely woven, occasionally cryptic, occasionally virtuosic novel ... Thomas Eloy Martinez was hailed on his death in 2010 as one of Argentina's most innovative writers. Recalling Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Paul Auster, this novel - elusive and resonant, satirical, surreal and moving - seems a fitting last testament

Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail

Limpidly translated by Frank Wynne ... a compassionate novel about the power of chimeras - of what we chose to see, of what we can bear to see - and the way grief clots when it is unsolved

Simon Willis, Economist

The posthumous publication of Purgatory shows a writer at the height of his craft, and is a fitting conclusion to the work of one of Latin America's most remarkable novelists

Alberto Manguel, Guardian

[A] moving exploration of the intangible nature of truth

Siobhan Murphy, Metro

[A] haunting and surreal depiction of the military dictatorship that gripped Argentina in the late 1970s ... Martinez questions the ideas of identity, geography, existence, and reality with fluid prose and finely detailed imagery that throws into relief the brutality and fear of this dark era

Publishers Weekly

Beautifully combines unsubtle, hard-hitting commentary on Argentine history with a touching ghost story about love, loss, and death

Booklist