Praise for How to Draw a Novel:

"The author's mercurial focus flows in unexpected directions, mixing literary analysis, biographical tidbits . . . and punchy aphorisms . . . in kaleidoscopic fashion, and the line drawings amuse . . . It adds up to an audacious and unique consideration of the art of the novel."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A quirky, playful addition to the well-populated subgenre of fiction writers writing about writing fiction."--Kirkus Reviews

"Inspired yet curious . . . of great value to anyone concerned about the art of writing. It is also a book for readers. Solares serves up insights so lucid and original they feel startling . . . [How to Draw a Novel] feels fresh and vital, unencumbered by rectitude or solemnity, proposing and digressing with abandon, because, as he reminds readers, in the end, the digressions are the point."--Library Journal

Praise for How to Draw a Novel (Mexican edition):

"Although it is formally a book of essays, the truth is that How to Draw a Novel is something more, much more . . . the book has a lot of talk, a lot of mischief, a lot of confession."--José David Cano, Forbes

"Martín Solares has managed, with this book, to create a world not just for himself, but also for the reader, who is invited to read novels as if he were drawing them himself, and to write them as if his own fate was at stake in the plot."--Gonzalo Lizardo, Confabulario

"This title is recommended reading for anyone who wants to venture into fiction writing; or also for those who like to read novels and want the backstage of this literary genre, without pretensions to writing . . . A kind of literary workshop, written with a conversational tone, as if he were speaking directly to the reader."--Jorge Perez, +Letras

"A carefree and sincere journey through abstract but intuitive representations of the structure of the novel."--Isai Moreno, Nagari

Praise for Martín Solares:

"A powerful, kaleidoscopic tale . . . another urgent and vital work from a writer to watch."--Booklist (starred review) on Don't Send Flowers

"Mr. Solares is a graceful, even poetic, writer, especially in his hard-boiled dialogue and his descriptions of the wildly varied landscapes and ethnic types of northern Mexico. Though the world of The Black Minutes is one to inspire fear and revulsion, Mr. Solares's descriptions of it are oddly beautiful and fascinating in the same way that overturning a rock and observing the maggots beneath can be a perversely edifying spectacle."--Larry Rohter, New York Times

"Rich in conception and execution . . . Don't Send Flowers is full of odd twists and strange surprises."--Wall Street Journal on Don't Send Flowers

"Martín Solares uses the codes and formula of classic crime novels to create a universe where the reader is permanently on a fluctuating border between dream and reality, between fiction and the authentic violence of facts."--Le Monde (France) on The Black Minutes