Poetically written, absorbing, harrowing . . . a moving and unusual achievement -- Fiona Wilson * The Times *
An important book. . . I cried all the way through -- Tracy Chevalier
An ambitious and important book that goes far beyond the voyeurism of 24-hour news to identify something timeless and troubling... a moral tale, following events through the eyes of the fastidiously ordinary optician never named in the text and thereby transformed into an everyman . . . Emma Jane Kirby challenges us to do more than cry. -- Peter Stanford * Observer *
A novelistic retelling of a man's tragic encounter with the European migrant crisis - a true story that brings a fresh perspective to events that are often hard to visualise. -- Melissa Lawford * Financial Times *
An eloquent, extraordinary story for our times * Tablet, Book of the Year *
A moving insight * Financial Times, Book of the Year *
A book that can be devoured as if it were a novel, but in which everything is true. * Le Parisien *
A heartfelt story . . . at once horrifying and comforting * Le Soir *
Deeply moving. . . this is a tale of transformation, of a man just like you and me. * Journal du Dimanche *
With skill and composure that marks it as a work of literature rather than a journalistic report, Emma-Jane Kirby explores closely the innermost upheaval of one human being faced with the tragedy of another: the cause of such suffering is born of guilt, but also of a sense of humanity born of uncontrollable empathy. * La Croix *
A shock to the system, it forces us to think. . . the optician is an ordinary man, no better no worse than us. * France 2 *
