A shimmering and uneasy novel . . . Appanah exposes disconnection, trauma, sadness, but works them delicately into something so very beautiful and strange -- Daniel Hahn Through lyrical prose, flawlessly translated by Geoffrey Strachan, Appanah unpeels the layers of the family's turmoil -- Lucy Popescu * Times Literary Supplement * Appanah's writing is truly beautiful, shimmering in places, poetic in others * Litro * With this magnificent text Nathacha Appanah has never been so close to the poetry that she carries in her work. Great, great literature. -- Mohammed Aļssaoui * Le Figaro Littéraire * The author of The Tropic of Violence creates an unexpected opening in the gray sky of everyday life. It unveils a world in which the most vulnerable or the strongest among us can climb, sheltered from the blows of life: poetry. Breathtaking. -- Flavie Philipon * Elle * It's beautiful, extraordinarily delicate -- Franēois Busnel * La Grande Librairie * Shrouded in darkness and rare poetry, Nathacha Appanah's new novel is a haunting song that leaves a lasting mark. -- Alexandre Fillon * Les Échos Weekend * There is tale in this novel, a sweetness about pain and perpetual marginality, from which emanates a dreamlike atmosphere. -- Valérie Marin La Meslée * Le Point * Nathacha Appanah's intimate and luminous writing questions the inevitability of the transmission of trauma from one generation to another. -- Jean-Christophe Ploquin * La Croix * Nathacha Appanah does not judge; she looks, writes, describes, heals wounds, gently blows on scars. It is very sweet. Very painful. Very loving, too. -- Éric Libiot * L'Express * Tender and lyrical -- Jonathan Coe * i *