Critical Praise

"John Crowley is a virtuoso of metaphor, a peerless recreator of living moments, of small daily sublimities. And his latest novel, Four Freedoms, is in many ways his most unguarded and imaginative work… And it’s brilliantly stitched together by motifs of chrysalises and movies and by a joyous abundance of metaphor and similie. Images like these, beautiful and unbidden, come to the surface only when a novelist has immersed himself entirely in his characters out of pity and tenderness, out of love."

—New York Times Book Review

"Ultimately, the significance of Four Freedoms lies in its thoroughness, the sheer specificity with which Crowley has imagined this one small corner of an imperiled planet… An accessible, painstakingly crafted work that offers many pleasures and rewards. It could be the novel that finally brings Crowley the wide attention he has long deserved. One can only hope."

—Washington Post

"Four Freedoms, by John Crowley, perfectly captures an era-WWII America-when the chosen are overseas and the left-behind are granted a rare moment of possibility. Crowley’s extraordinary characters and the poignant, funny, disturbing ways they find to connect with one another make you wish this war would never end."

—San Francisco Chronicle, Top-Shelf Fiction Pick