PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewIn Victoria, Daisy Goodwin’s lively and effervescent novel, the range of her storytelling is rich but brief ... Goodwin uses her well-judged departures from the strict historical chronology to arrive at an emotional core...Goodwin’s queen has all the makings of a captivating human paradox. Although the novel ends before her marriage, Goodwin cleverly lays the groundwork for Victoria’s future. Her repaired relationship with her mother and the dynamics of power within her marriage are all seeded here.
Julia Baird
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewVictoria the Queen, Julia Baird’s exquisitely wrought and meticulously researched biography, brushes the dusty myth off this extraordinary monarch. Right out of the gate, the book thrums with authority as Baird builds her portrayal of Victoria. Overturning stereotypes, she rips this queen down to the studs and creates her anew ... Baird writes in the round. She constructs a dynamic historical figure, then spins out a spherical world of elegant reference, anchoring the narrative in specific detail and pinning down complex swaths of history that, in less capable hands, would simply blow away. At points, she also pulls back, effectively locating her subject within a broader context ... Baird’s central figures are sculpted from finely grained raw material, enhanced with the kind of detail that lends them nuance and dimension.
Maylis de Kerangal, Trans. by Sam Taylor
RaveThe New York Times Book Review\"The story unfolds in an intricate lacework of precise detail. Each character is introduced in particle form, and then the details compound until a wholeness is reached, a person takes shape and steps forward ... These characters feel less like fictional creations and more like ordinary people, briefly illuminated in rich language, beautifully translated by Sam Taylor, that veers from the medical to the philosophical.\
