"Gripping. . . . Compelling. . . . Barker is at the height of her historicist powers." --Los Angeles Review of Books

"Powerful and compassionate. . . . A fine and satisfying novel." --Financial Times

"[A] sweeping panorama." --The New Yorker

"Searing. . . . [Barker] grounds Noonday with historical fact and offers telling physical detail. . . . Glimmering moments like these make fans look forward to what Barker will write next." --The Miami Herald

"Compelling. . . . Weaves narrative and reportage so skillfully, you don't realize how much empathy you're suffering; you're too busy being involved in what's happening. . . . Another fine work by a great writer." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Picks up an irresistible momentum. . . . First-rate." --Newsday

"Vivid. . . . Evocative. . . . Noonday does a magnificent job of bringing to life the rain of death London experienced in 1940." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A novel of sure-footed storytelling. . . . The mindless destruction of the capital is simultaneously apocalyptic and beautiful, inhibiting and rich with opportunity. Ideas, emotions and attitudes prove as fragile--and as flammable--as the physical landscape." --The New Statesman

"Impressive. . . . Bristl[es] with period detail and gritty, well-researched atmosphere." --The Observer (London)

"Intelligent, uncompromising. . . . Searingly re-creates a wartime landscape. . . . Barker is as subtle and tough-minded here about human nature as in all her work. Yet the closing pages suggest the possibility of new beginnings even as they acknowledge the permanence of old wounds." --Kirkus Reviews (starred)