Ruth Scurr reviews Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland in "The Daily Telegraph": "It is difficult to combine realism and surreal interludes in a single narrative structure, but Hyland manages this effortlessly in what is only her second novel. The graceful poise of her prose has attracted praise from J M Coetzee and Ali Smith, but the contemporary writer she most brings to mind is A L Kennedy. They share a fondness for quietly, relentlessly shocking the reader; and redemption, if it comes at all, is costly."
In "The Independent", Randa Abdel-Fattah's novel Does My Head Look Big in This? is reviewed by Sarah Cassidy. The reviews of Peter Carey's Theft are starting to come in from the US with the first I've seen appearing in "The Washington Post": "Given his devious trajectory, a novel about modern art seems like an inevitable destination for Carey. Could there be any more irresistible house of mirrors for an author fascinated by deceit and subterfuge? Fortunes rise and fall in a haze of aesthetic jargon spun by a few collectors and dealers. So strange is this phenomenon that if we didn't have the modern art market, Peter Carey would have to invent it."
