‘A timely, timeless book about leaving and returning, failure and success, ambivalence and disappearance, things and people left behind. It’s funny, snarky, touching, and profound.’ Chris Kraus

‘MacKenzie astutely shows how nostalgia becomes a siren’s song, luring us back to the familiar only to dash us upon the rocks … Via Xander — as comically vapid as he is at times poignantly reflective — we see how the anxieties of adulthood are born from the anxieties of youth; how, as we strive to define ourselves, fleeing what shaped us so that we may carve out something new, we can wake suddenly, years later, feeling estranged.’ Jack Callil, The Guardian

'A study in arrested development; it both satirises and indulges in the depiction of rudderless young men.’ The Age

'A novel about coming home after a long time away and feeling like you’ve time travelled. It’s about slipping into the pleasant haze of the past. It’s about the sickly sweet feeling of nostalgia and how quickly it curdles into something ugly and desperate … In Xander, Hector Mackenzie captures the frenzies of youth and the ruins it can leave behind, delivering a man whose tragedy is no less gripping for being entirely self-inflicted.’ Joe Murray, Readings

‘Swinging between the everyday absurdity of anxious fantasy and the tragedy of failed relationships, the long cloud is at once a parody of masculinity and an elegy for the freedoms and possibilities of youth.’ Megan Cheong, Books+Publishing