an excellent novel, a model of restraint and quiet literary sophistication * Sunday Times *[A] luminous debut novel... This is a book that demanded to be written... With a light touch, Faye dramatises the terrible nostalgia of having lost not only a childhood but also a whole world to war -- Nadifa Mohamed * Guardian *An evocative portrait of what it means to lose one's freedom and innocence. Gael Faye's literary powers lie in his unbridled honesty and his effortless prose. He is a writer of great promise and grace -- Chigozie Obioma, author of The FishermenUnforgettable... Gael Faye's talent is breathtaking; no country that can give the world a writer like him should ever be called small -- Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamersas beautiful as it is painful... It's easy to see why it set the French literary scene alight. This is one you won't be abandoning in the hotel library when you leave. -- Sam Baker * The Pool *a masterpiece in bringing home the first-hand realities of war... It's heart-wrenching and beautiful and distressingly authentic. Everyone should read it. * The Pool *This beautiful coming-of-age novel conveys a heart-rending desire for peace and harmony. It sets forth a vision of the world that is poetic rather than political, where horror is displaced by wonder. * Le Figaro *A magnificent book... a master-stroke of a first novel * Le Parisien *Precise and potent...deeply affecting... The juxtaposition of everyday growing pains and the fallout from atrocities is heightened by Faye's lovely prose, which builds a heartrending portrait of the end of childhood * Publishers Weekly *Gael Faye's words are a mix of such precision, gentleness and gravitas that finishing this first novel feels like coming out of a heartrending embrace. * Le Point *A very personal and intimate novel about an African childhood cut through by socio-political turbulence... Gael Faye has evoked the darkest pages of contemporary Africa without tipping into pathos -- Alain Mabanckou, author of Broken GlassA literary revelation, subtle and powerful * Elle *Gael Faye is a revelation. Small Country is a luminous and poignant novel about childhood, war, exile and identity... this is literature at its most powerful * Le Parisien Magazine *Triumphant * le Journal du Dimanche *Writing that is beautiful, sad and funny. A poetic 'cry to the world' about the existence of Gabriel, his family, his friends and everyone else. Before they became "a bunch of exiles, refugees, immigrants and migrants" * Charlie Hebdo *a melancholic tale of a paradise lost * Grazia *In the summer months, there are two categories of books: those we take on holiday and leave behind in the sand, and those that make their mark on us for life. Small Country by Gael Faye is firmly part of the latter category. * Le Matin Dimanche *A literary phenomenon -- Mehdi Ba * Jeune Afrique *Small Country is a big novel * Canard Enchaine *The dizzying enterprise of a childhood reclaimed... [Gael Faye] has understood how to put words on this earth that cannot be summed up by a mass grave * Le Temps *