Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 13 reviews on
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2019
"Mr. Miller strikes an impressive balance between adventure and atmosphere."--The Wall Street Journal
When Captain John Lacroix returns home from Spain, wounded, unconscious, and alone, he believes that he has seen the worst of what men may do. It is 1809, and in England's wars against Napoleon, the Battle of Corruna stands out as a humiliation: a once-proud army forced to retreat, civilized men reduced to senseless acts of cruelty.
Slowly regaining his health, Lacroix journeys north to the misty isles of Scotland with the intent of forgetting the horrors of the war. Unbeknownst to him, however, something else has followed him back from the war--something far more dangerous than a memory...
Andrew Miller is one of Britain's leading novelists. He has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award. His bestselling novel Pure, a Costa Book Award winner, has received widespread acclaim and was a best-seller for Europa in 2012. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free is his eighth novel.
'Ambassador' for Australian Literature (but reading from everywhere else as well). Not tolerant of tweets about sport. Now also at https://t.co/IFib08O1dG
Exceptional historical fiction: Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller: https://t.co/f0aBOSreKv https://t.co/32wygzix4s
Dr Martina Devlin. Writer @lilliputpress latest novel Edith. Weekly columnist @independent_ie. Adjunct lecturer Irish lit @bu_tweets Omagh born, Dublin based
@ChristinaCarty_ @LilliputPress Thank you! I'm reading Andrew Miller's Now We Shall Be Entirely Free and it's kept me up past bedtime too.
"[The book] was not only his most passable imitation of our much-celebrated nineteenth-century novels so far—a Robert Louis Stevenson–style adventure yarn set in a thoroughly imagined Britain of 1809—but also triumphantly proved that there was life in the old form yet."
Praise for Now We Shall Be Entirely Free
"Miller acutely imagines the war-scarred psychology of his characters...and uses the historical setting to great advantage."--New Yorker
"Mr. Miller strikes an impressive balance between adventure and atmosphere. "--The Wall Street Journal
"[Andrew Miller] is a very stylish, almost painterly writer."--The New York Times Book Review
"This book is expertly researched and captures the venues and feelings of the period exceptionally well."--Historical Novel Society
"Miller is in fine form here, mixing an unforgettable cat-and-mouse chase with a moving love story." --Kirkus Reviews
"There is only one Andrew Miller. Historical or otherwise, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free is fiction -- storytelling -- at its best." --Spectator
"Characters are richly developed. Places meticulously described [...] All in all, this is escapism at a compelling level."--The Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Both a ripping yarn and a meditation on absence, this novel is a four-square adventure story that displays all the author's customary skill." --Guardian
"Andrew Miller is at the top of his game with Now We Shall Be Entirely Free... He has a way with words that delights, surprises and enthralls." --Sunday Express
More praise for Andrew Miller
"His writing is vivid, precise, and constantly surprising. It reads easily, suspends life until it is read and is a source of wonder and delight" --Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times
"Andrew Miller...is another Hilary Mantel. Pure [is] elegantly written and intricately constructed, with an ending that, like those mirrors at Versailles, cleverly reflects the beginning." --The New York Times
"For the past two decades, Miller has been telling stories that fuse imagination and reality to illuminate the lives of his characters. In his new novel, he succeeds in creating an involving, suspenseful drama and a moving portrait of a man in search of redemption." --Times UK
"Pure is brilliance distilled." --Telegraph