'Rich in detail and filled with acute observations, this novel movingly examines the absences eating away at the core of all of its characters' Sunday Telegraph 'As beautifully written and pleasurable as anything I've read ... Gurnah's portrait is the work of a maestro' Guardian 'This is an impressive and deeply serious book, a careful and often heartfelt exploration of the way memory inevitably consoles and disappoints us' Sunday Times 'An absorbing novel about abandonment and loss ... Gurnah writes beautifully, with the satisfying assurance of someone who knows how to achieve his effects without undue fuss but with absolute precision' Daily Telegraph