Islands of Mercy

A moving exploration of love and the sacrifices we're willing to make in its name

Joanne Finney, Good Housekeeping

An exhilarating exploration of love, life, loss and death... A thrilling and seductive story... Vivid and beguiling

Rowan Mantell, Eastern Daily Press

Another gratifyingly well-put-together work... Tremain's long sentences brim with a poised positivity...[and] add lightness to her fond depictions of these imperfect strivers

Francesca Carington, Sunday Telegraph, *Novel of the Week*

A hell of a read - so emotionally sophisticated, so deft with shade and light, more absorbing than most fiction I've read this year

Johanna Thomas-Corr, Sunday Times

Terrific

Louise Carpenter, The Times

A new book from Rose Tremain is always a cause for celebration. Her exceptionally well-crafted and deeply humane historical novels are invariably a joy and Islands of Mercy is no exception... A rich, rewarding and highly satisfying novel from one of our finest novelists.

Daunt Books

An enjoyable page-turner

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, The Times

Over a distinguished literary career, Rose Tremain has traversed genres with her customary flair... in her portrayal of the ways in which individual longing and frustration unfold against the constraints of forces beyond our control, Tremain has long been one of our most accomplished novelists, and here is further confirmation

Stephanie Merritt, The Observer

Rose Tremain gives Hilary Mantel a run for her money for the title of Britain's greatest living historical novelist... there are still few writers who can conjure up a version of the past that is so startlingly unfamiliar yet so convincing

Charlotte Heathcote, Sunday Express

Vivid, transgressive, explicit and kaleidoscopic

Rose Shepherd, Saga Magazine

Subtle, illuminating and captivating

Eithne Farry, Mail on Sunday