The theme of towering celebrity and its attendant vacuity is very well done

Chris Power, The Times

McCann's remarkable novel … McCann's prose – nimble, lyrical and wispy – does full justice to the tragic story of a dancer who was the glory of his generation

Sunday Times

It's a strikingly original book, and as apparently effortless as one of Fonteyn's pirouettes or Nureyev's leaps into space

Irish Times

An utterly riveting, frequently moving, and staggeringly well-written book

Wendy Holden, Daily Mail

McCann's agile, muscular prose creates its own energy and rhythm … he has taken one of the most charismatic characters of the 20th century and created a bold contemporary novel

Daily Telegraph

Like its subject, it spins with virtuoso, charismatic brilliance around a core of wilful mystery

Guardian