Stoner

I was stunned by it... beautifully written in simple but brilliant prose, a novel of an ordinary life, an examination of a quiet tragedy, the work of a great but little-known writer

Ruth Rendell, Guardian

A beautiful, sad, utterly convincing account of an entire life… I’m amazed a novel this good escaped general attention for so long

Ian McEwan

A terrific novel of echoing sadness

Julian Barnes

A brilliant, beautiful, inexorably sad, wise, and elegant novel

Nick Hornby, The Believer

One of the great forgotten novels of the past century. I have bought at least 50 copies of it in the past few years, using it as a gift for friends. It is universally adored by writers and readers alike...so beautifully paced and cadenced that it deserves the status of classic

Colum McCann, Guardian

A beautiful and moving novel, as sweeping, intimate and mysterious as life itself

Geoff Dyer

One of the great unheralded 20th century American novels...Almost perfect

Bret Easton Ellis

It's simply a novel about a guy who goes to college and becomes a teacher. But its one of the most fascinating things that you've ever come across

Tom Hanks, Time

Something rarer than a great novel -- it is a perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, that it takes your breath away...few stories this sad could be so secretly triumphant, or so exhilarating.

New York Times

The most extraordinary work of fiction I've read in a long time... If you're looking for a book that's simple and subtle, warmly human and at the same time utterly pitiless in his rendition of the vicissitudes of an ordinary existence, here's one you will read again and again

New Statesman