'Fans of intelligent historical fiction will be enthralled by a story so original and so fully imagined. Meek shows the era as alien, which it is, and doesn’t falsify it by assimilating it to ours. But his characters are recognisably warm and human'
HILARY MANTEL

'A glorious imaginative feat, full of complex, compelling, believable characters. Rarely have I been so captivated by a novel, so keen to hurry back to it and reimmerse myself in its world'
SARAH WATERS

'I was incapable of ripping myself away from this novel once I began it. James Meek is the bold creator of a world that I felt I could see, hear, smell and taste with complete clarity. What an excellent storyteller he is'
CHARLOTTE HIGGINS

PRAISE FOR THE PEOPLE'S ACT OF LOVE:

'A quite extraordinary novel'
PHILIP PULLMAN

'Once in while a novel comes along that is so startlingly original as to defy categorisation . . . This is powerful storytelling indeed'
Mail on Sunday

'Meek is a novelist of Dostoevskyan intensity and seriousness'
Guardian

'A savagely colourful, always astonishing entertainment of elegant and bold storytelling'
SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

'This is historical fiction that transcends the genre – as intense as a thriller, imagined on an epic scale'
The Times

'Spellbinding . . . A truly great read'
Guardian

'One of the country’s finest writers'
GQ

'The narrative drive is amazing. So is the cold clarity of Meek’s imagination'
STEPHEN KING