Critical Praise

"Equipped with an almost celestial compassion. Madden is the constant genius of Irish Letters."

—Sebastian Barry

"Deirdre Madden's prose is crystalline, understated, apparently effortless yet artfully suitable. She really does not remind me of anybody I've read before. And yet, like other formidable writers --- Mavis Gallant, Margaret Atwood and Elizabeth Bowen come to mind --- she is after something intrinsic and riddling but essential in us all, something that probably doesn't exist until we've read every word this book contains. It is ambitious work. Madden is a first-rate novelist."

—Richard Ford

"A novel of great subtlety, beauty and strength. Madden is one of our finest writers."

—Anne Enright

"It is almost impossible not to be moved."

—The Scotsman