London and the South-East

A funny, painful, graphic demonstration that our job is a crucial part of our identity.... It's compulsively readable

Independent on Sunday

A terrific debut, written in a present tense which flashes every so often into the past - a trick which Szalay pulls off with confidence... a tense and compelling read

Independent

It's very, very good

William Leith, Evening Standard

One of the great English novels of recent years, a work of sublime literary realism, and a blackly comic meditation on the sins and sorrows of modernity

Rachel Cusk

Szalay's satire is sharp, though his depictions of rush-hour raise the blood pressure to levels that are not advisable

Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

This is David Szalay's first novel, and it's very, very good...it has a whiff of The Office...Superb

Johanna Thomas-Corr, Scotsman

Wonderfully dark

The Times