RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)This story of a KGB double-agent in cold war Iran also shows that the most compelling tales, ridiculous characters and vertiginous stakes of spying are entirely, often unbelievably, real ... Redwood lives up to its claims, charting how one agent’s decisions prevented the US from deploying its nuclear arsenal, altering the power dynamics of the Middle East in a way that is strikingly relevant to current events ... The book’s strength is its sources ... Global crises are thrillingly interspersed with titbits of everyday espionage.
RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)Delightfully nerdy ... Taipei Story is seemingly a simpler tale than Kuang’s previous novels ... But it is also more assured and compulsively paced so that explorations of linguistic idiosyncrasies or complicated history are elegantly woven within Lily’s day-to-day life ... We are lucky to have Kuang to articulate this for us.
