Critical Praise

" Helen Dunmore has created two of the most intriguing sisters in recent literary memory, women linked not only by birth and an arresting intimacy, but also by a mysteriously unexplained death. Peeling away the sisters' secrets, and doing so in rich, sensual prose, Dunmore in Talking to the Dead offers the reader descriptions of food, cooking, and movable feasts so gorgeous and lush one feels ravenous at every turn. "

——Anita Shreve, author of Resistanceand The Weight of Water

" Helen Dunmore's Talking to the Dead is simply breathtaking. The novel is both language driven and suspense driven. But Ms. Dunmore's special skill is in creating diversionary tactics within the narrative itself, looping both backward and forward in time past, present, and future. Ms. Dunmore's daring is remarkable. "

——Sheila Ballantyne, author of Imaginary Crimes

Men and the Girls and A Spanish Lover " Dunmore is a frankly erotic writer....This is a novel outstanding for its near perfect control and deceptively limpid prose. Talking to the Dead flies off the page, startling the reader with its brilliance. "

——Financial Times (London)

" Fascinating....One of the most unself-consciously sensual writers writing today....I found the book compelling as a narrative and also for its dreamy, sexy style. Although the contents of this novel are disturbing, there's something enormously soothing about the timelessness of her imagination and style. "

——Joanna Trollope, author of The

"Dunmore's writing...flashes with gorgeous imagery. Definitely a book to read in one enthralled sitting. "

——The Times (London)