"A darkly incantatory tragicomedy of love and betrayal. . . . Beautifully paced, emotionally wise."
--The Boston Globe

"A dark, haunting novel. . . . Features gorgeous writing on every page."
--NPR

"Poetic. . . . Deft and generous."
--The New York Times

"A meticulous, devastatingly vivid portrayal of serious crime and its real consequences."
--The Guardian

"I had to quit reading this book the first day I had it in my hands, just so I could have it to read the next day. It's that good."
--Richard Ford

"Barry has a great gift for getting the atmospheres of sketchy social hubs in a few phosphorescent lines. . . . The sheer lyric intensity . . . brings its variously warped and ruined souls into being."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Kevin Barry channels the music in every voice . . . and the comic genius in everyone."
--The Washington Post

"[Barry] is a writer of inspired prose, a funny and perceptive artist who can imbue a small story with tremendous depth. . . . A sad, lyrical beauty of a novel."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Brutal and funny. . . . The prose is a glory."
--The Paris Review

"Tautly written. . . . Dreamlike."
--The New Yorker

"Barry is blowing up language left, right, and center in his books. . . . This is a guy who can nail details like he's throwing knives. . . . Essential reading. . . . A profoundly good book."
--The Brooklyn Rail

"A fascinating hybrid of poetry, prose and drama. . . . A remarkably achieved novel which shows a writer in full command of the possibilities of the form."
--Irish Times

"Sad and funny in equal measure. . . . As with everything Barry writes, it's the language that grips you by the throat."
--Evening Standard (London)

"This hypnotically beautiful tone poem is both wildly comic and deeply sad. . . . A transformative celebration of language itself."
--Booklist

"Wildly and inventively coarse, and something to behold. As far as bleak Irish fiction goes, this is black tar heroin."
--Publishers Weekly