`The surface of Yiyun Li's prose is deceptively still, but just beneath the surface is the sadness, pain and tragedy of three lives ... Her characters are portrayed with a harsh beauty, and one's emotions become deeply engaged with their fates ... This is an exceptional novel and Yiyun Li has grown into one of our major novelists.' Salman Rushdie
`This riveting novel from our leading fictional informant on latterday China is a masterly investigation of personal and social damage wrought by the country's recent history.' Peter Kemp, Sunday Times, Books of the Year
`Bold and unsettling ... The messiness of the human condition is presented in all its complexity, with moral judgment often suspended in favour of a more nuanced probing of the way people respond to turbulent times ... A finely wrought novel that never shrinks from laying bare the messiness and fragility of the human condition.' Tash Aw, Financial Times
`Yiyun Li has produced a thrilling mystery in "Kinder Than Solitude"' Sunday Telegraph
`A fine, taut Beijing novel' James Lasdun, Guardian
`A stunning, dark, and beautiful book. Yiyun Li writes with characteristic genius and hard, clear-eyed insight about characters ravaged by family and culture ... Tragic and true and soul-wrenching ... The reader's own heart feels exposed, fragile, and all the more precious for having taken part in Li's mysterious, artful novel.' Paul Harding, author of `Tinkers and Enon'
`I can't remember the last time I read a novel at once so relentless and elegant, so precise and ranging ... A search light, blazing into every dark corner of its characters' psyches, and ours. I couldn't look away.' Ayana Mathis, author of `The Twelve Tribes of Hattie'
