Submergence

Submergence succeeds, and is immensely pleasurable, because Ledgard's magnetic north - though incessantly insisted on - is such an uncanny, inhuman and deathly place

Toby Litt, New Statesman

it's the only fiction I've read in the last few years that has left me open-mouthed

David Hepworth, Word

An ambitious narrative that is stark, serene and contemplative...[it] achieves the ultimate goal of any writer: it makes us pause and think, and think again

Irish Times

JM Ledgard's eclectic and philosophical novel ranges far wider than this latest manifestation of the 'war on terror'... Ledgard creates a prose poem of ideas and images that hops and flits with inspiration

Metro

Writing of awesome power. In a profound meditation on cruelty, pity, belief, art, science, hope, love and mortality, the novel's truths settle in your consciousness, perhaps never to be forgotten

Independent

From the icy depths of the Greenland Sea to the sweltering plains of a Somali Islamist training camp, Ledgard's masterful second novel is a beautifully crafted, rigorously researched, and deeply affecting love story

Monocle