"[Phillips is] an insightful and sympathetic chronicler of race, British identity, and the immigrant experience." –
The Christian Science Monitor "[A] serious novel. . . . [Keith's father's] discourse of ideas and anecdotes is gritty, brilliant, remarkable." –
San Francisco Chronicle "Phillips displays his considerable writing skills. His ear for speech is acute; his eye for the cityscapes of both London and the north of England is good; his sense of the history of England in the 1960s is sure and, most significantly, he has a dramatist's talent for creating telling scenes and incidents." –
Washington Times "Throughout Phillips's fiction and nonfiction, he focuses on people who are caught in between places, desires, and circumstances of history. . . . [Here, ] he elegantly handles a complicated time scheme, shifting smoothly between Keith's present and memories of his past." –
World Literature Review "Phillips has written extensively . . . about the legacy of the slave trade and the immigrant experience. . . . The hero's dying father delivers an incandescent soliloquy." –
The New Yorker "Caryl Phillips is an alpha-class writer, both as a phrase-maker and as an observer of human nature." –
Mail on Sunday (UK)
"Phillips's excellent reputation is well deserved. He explores grand themes by peering expertly through the net curtains of everyday life. Intelligent, gripping, understated and affecting, this is a brilliant account of how real life can get in the way of a family's dreams." –
Birmingham Post (UK)
"Convincing....Impressive . . . The conclusion is expertly done; the sense of loss it conjures, lasting." –
Daily Mail (UK)
"Richly reflective....[Offers] significant rewards." -
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
