PositiveThe Spectator (UK)Greenwell is a great stylist, with the tone and structure of his sentences shifting each time his central character changes position in the narrative ... In the final story the teacher enjoys a night out with two of his students before he leaves Sofia. The more he drinks, the more his professional and sexual boundaries melt away. He berates himself for his desire for one of the young men. But all his reflection and self-flagellation cannot assuage his guilt, or the reader’s sense that there is something deeply predatory about his behaviour. ‘I had leered at him, I had touched him, I had been a caricature of myself, I thought, but that isn’t true. I had been myself without impediment.\' ... Greenwell recognises that even these darker proclivities exist somewhere on the spectrum of sexual desire and as such are part of who we are.
Etgar Keret
RaveThe Irish Times (UK)Keret uses speech to carry us along. He recognises that dialogue is a kind of duet, a call and response. But again, he uses this idea to anticipate our reactions and upend them, sometimes with tragic consequences ... there are no postmodern bells and whistles attached; nothing fanciful or clever gets in the way of the story itself. And in a world where our headlines read, \'Trump tries to buy Greenland\', speculative fiction doesn’t seem so speculative anymore ... This book should be thrust into the hands of any infidel who has ever uttered the words, \'I just don’t like short stories\'. It has a completeness and aliveness and dare I say, accessibility, that makes it a great first venture for the uninitiated, and each five pages contain more action than most novels. This is writing characterised by generosity, where being generous doesn’t mean giving too much, but giving just the right amount.
Tsitsi Dangarembga
RaveThe Irish TimesThe entire novel is written in the second person so the effect is at once direct and distancing. The narration is unflinchingly frank about every one of Tambu’s thoughts and feelings ... The voice is relentless and cruel and there is no respite for the reader, but there are also moments of beauty ... But even the most evocative descriptions are merely deployed as armour. In a world where so much suffering is so easily ignored, Dangarembga has written a book so powerful and compelling she makes it impossible for us to turn our face away.
