Genres merge and interact like the shimmering colours of a kaleidoscope . . . one story contains multiplicities, woven together with golden thread . . . Dive in and lose yourself in <b>a world of incredible scope, originality and imaginative brilliance</b>

- Katy Guest, Independent on Sunday

Compared with almost everything being written now, it is <b>vertiginously ambitious - and brilliant </b>. . . He can write as thrillingly about large-scale events as he can about the tiny details of the private world . . . turned one way this novel is a thriller with a glittering seam of a love story running through it (or is it the other way round?); turned another, it is a sumptuous historical novel on the collision of cultures caught at a particular crossroads of history

- Neel Mukherjee, The Times

<b>Stunning</b>

- Books of the Year, Independent on Sunday

<b>As compelling as it is strange</b>, the novel is testament to the originality of Mitchell's vision and his great craftiness as a storyteller

Times Literary Supplement

A heady potion of betrayal, love, superstition, power politics and murder . . . And all this in<b> the most extraordinary prose</b>

Sunday Telegraph

However densely charted and richly sketched, this <b>sumptuous </b>imbroglio never drags . . . Mitchell flexes his prose virtuosity. More than before, those muscles do the heart's work

Independent

<b>Moving</b>, thoughtful and unexpectedly funny

- Books of the Year, Observer

<b>Hugely enjoyable</b> . . . It cracks along, holding us in suspense from the beginning

Literary Review

<b>Masterpieces make their own rules</b>, and this book is definitely one of them

Scotsman

David Mitchell is back with a bang . . . <b>superb</b>

Irish Independent

<b>Ambitious and fascinating</b> . . . Comparisons to Tolstoy are inevitable, and right on the money

Kirkus Reviews

<b>A pitch-perfect masterclass</b> in the art, and magic, of narrative

- Books of the Year, Independent

<b>A marvel - entirely original</b> among contemporary British novels, revealing its author as, surely, the most impressive fictional mind of his generation

Observer

<b>A formidable marvel</b>

New Yorker

<b>Extraordinarily entertaining </b>and well-realised

- A. S. Byatt, Observer

For a tour de force, it's surprisingly nimble, emotionally complex and <b>simply unforgettable</b>

- Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

Almost every sentence shimmers with precise, opaque and <b>brilliantly realised </b>writing . . . An historical novel on a deliberately grand scale, it never loses its quiet intimacy

Irish Times

The details are fascinating and the prose beautiful . . . simply <b>magnificent</b>

Historical Novels Review

<b>Sharp, hilarious, exhilarating </b>stuff. Utterly enjoyable

Mslexia

An affecting conclusion underscores Mr Mitchell's mastery here not only of<b> virtuosic literary fireworks</b>, but also of the quieter arts of empathy and traditional storytelling

- Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

<b>Dazzles</b> with its density and intensity, its ambition and grandeur

Courier Mail

Mitchell's masterpiece; and also, I am convinced, <b>a masterpiece of our time</b>

Boston Globe

The novelist who's shown us fiction's future has written a <b>classic </b>tale . . . an epic of sacrificial love, clashing civilizations and enemies who won't rest until whole family lines have been snuffed out

Washington Post

A <b>vastly entertaining</b> historical novel, giving the reader a glimpse into a world we know so little of and charting a fascinating period of history

Sydney Morning Herald

A <b>marvellously wrought </b>novel, full of fully formed characters and the kind of detail that allows you to sink deep into its imaginary world. I was sorry when I finished

Herald Sun