The god of small stories ... A set of polished gems from a master craftsman ... The prose is terse, the craftsmanship, as always, fine. The reader feels cradled in the capable hands of an expert * Sunday Times *
Richard Ford remains on superb form at 74, writing in these nine short stories about death, divorce and all the other disappointments that come to us in old age, as we realise how much we might have misunderstood others and, more poignantly, ourselves ... A book to plunder for its truths * Evening Standard, Best Books of 2020 *
I can't think of many other writers, living or dead, who have given me so many reasons over the years to slow down on the page and pay attention * Times Literary Supplement *
One of the great masters of American literature -- Andrew Marr, BBC Radio 4 'Start the Week'
He writes about human beings and their disappointments with unfailing insight and, while he never mocks his characters, is keenly aware of the absurdity involved in being alive ... Sorry for Your Trouble , is exemplary in its nuanced understanding of the relationships between men and women * Observer *
Finely crafted * Mail on Sunday *
American master * Daily Telegraph *
Late style, in Ford, is loose-limbed, allusive, jokey in a rueful way, and mutedly elegiac ... A marvellous writer -- John Banville * Guardian *
As you read Richard Ford, the harder you look, the sadder and funnier it gets * Observer *
Work of understated power, intelligence and not a little mischief, but one that leaves one wanting - craving - more * Independent *
The incomparable Mississippian Richard Ford is a great writer, no question about that. More importantly, he is a great American writer. Throughout his novels and short stories, as well as his astute critical reading of literature, he has fulfilled the main objective of art: the exploration of the self. He has also consistently chiselled away, ever closer to the heart of the United States ... He is a writer who has nailed exactly what it is to be alive - no mean feat - and to be alive in the US -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *
His journalistic eye for the revealing detail, his knack for tracing the connections between the public and the personal, his gift for capturing the precariousness of daily life * The Times *
Nine short stories from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (on superb form here) dwell on the disappointments of life and the inevitability of death in a way that only truly comes into focus in old age * Evening Standard, Lounger Lit: What to read on that longed-for break *
