RaveTimes Literary Supplement (UK)The story takes on a mythical dimension, with hints and echoes from direful legend and foreboding balladry ... It was an inspired choice to take the medieval romance and recast it in a raunchy, energetic and idiomatic mode. What is especially striking about this novel is the way it manages to be both generic and singular in feeling and tempo, with its historical evocations, ominous unfolding, dense atmosphere and moments of sardonic asperity.
Emma Donoghue
RaveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)...a drama of drudgery, solicitude, alarms and obstetrics ... almost ludicrously timely – and engrossing ... at once harrowing and heartening ... The events of The Pull of the Stars are mostly confined to Julia’s makeshift maternity ward and unfold over a period of just three days, in the course of which much emotion and activity is generated. The brief timespan makes for succinctness and intimacy ... Once again – following on from her earlier books...Emma Donoghue takes the stuff of a newspaper headline as a starting point, and expands and transforms its core element into an original and arresting work of fiction.
Robert MacFarlane
PositiveThe Irish Times\" ... compelling ... Landmarks covers a good deal of ground, from the Arctic north to the Sierra Nevada, while homing in on distinctive British chosen grounds, all abundant in imagery and implications, social, moral and regenerative implications ... Keeping the country in good heart by celebrating the countryside in all its aspects: this is one of Macfarlane’s aims, and one that is wonderfully achieved.\
