Spectacularly accomplished and thrillingly suspenseful . . . it brims with rich, involving and affecting humanity * Sunday Times *
An achingly romantic story of forbidden love . . . Mitchell's incredible prose is on stunning display . . . [it] confirms Mitchell as one of the more fascinating and fearless writers alive -- Dave Eggers * New York Times Book Review *
That rare thing - a novel which actually deserves the accolade tour de force -- Kamila Shamsie, Books of the Year * Daily Telegraph *
Genres merge and interact like the shimmering colours of a kaleidoscope . . . one story contains multiplicities, woven together with golden thread . . . Dive in and lose yourself in a world of incredible scope, originality and imaginative brilliance -- Katy Guest * Independent on Sunday *
Compared with almost everything being written now, it is vertiginously ambitious - and brilliant . . . He can write as thrillingly about large-scale events as he can about the tiny details of the private world . . . turned one way this novel is a thriller with a glittering seam of a love story running through it (or is it the other way round?); turned another, it is a sumptuous historical novel on the collision of cultures caught at a particular crossroads of history -- Neel Mukherjee * The Times *
Stunning -- Books of the Year * Independent on Sunday *
As compelling as it is strange, the novel is testament to the originality of Mitchell's vision and his great craftiness as a storyteller * Times Literary Supplement *
A heady potion of betrayal, love, superstition, power politics and murder . . . And all this in the most extraordinary prose * Sunday Telegraph *
However densely charted and richly sketched, this sumptuous imbroglio never drags . . . Mitchell flexes his prose virtuosity. More than before, those muscles do the heart's work * Independent *
Moving, thoughtful and unexpectedly funny -- Books of the Year * Observer *
Hugely enjoyable . . . It cracks along, holding us in suspense from the beginning * Literary Review *
Masterpieces make their own rules, and this book is definitely one of them * Scotsman *
David Mitchell is back with a bang . . . superb * Irish Independent *
Ambitious and fascinating . . . Comparisons to Tolstoy are inevitable, and right on the money * Kirkus Reviews *
A pitch-perfect masterclass in the art, and magic, of narrative -- Books of the Year * Independent *
A marvel - entirely original among contemporary British novels, revealing its author as, surely, the most impressive fictional mind of his generation * Observer *
A formidable marvel * New Yorker *
Extraordinarily entertaining and well-realised -- A. S. Byatt * Observer *
For a tour de force, it's surprisingly nimble, emotionally complex and simply unforgettable -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *
Almost every sentence shimmers with precise, opaque and brilliantly realised writing . . . An historical novel on a deliberately grand scale, it never loses its quiet intimacy * Irish Times *
The details are fascinating and the prose beautiful . . . simply magnificent * Historical Novels Review *
Sharp, hilarious, exhilarating stuff. Utterly enjoyable * Mslexia *
An affecting conclusion underscores Mr Mitchell's mastery here not only of virtuosic literary fireworks, but also of the quieter arts of empathy and traditional storytelling -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
Dazzles with its density and intensity, its ambition and grandeur * Courier Mail *
Mitchell's masterpiece; and also, I am convinced, a masterpiece of our time * Boston Globe *
The novelist who's shown us fiction's future has written a classic tale . . . an epic of sacrificial love, clashing civilizations and enemies who won't rest until whole family lines have been snuffed out * Washington Post *
A vastly entertaining historical novel, giving the reader a glimpse into a world we know so little of and charting a fascinating period of history * Sydney Morning Herald *
A marvellously wrought novel, full of fully formed characters and the kind of detail that allows you to sink deep into its imaginary world. I was sorry when I finished * Herald Sun *
