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Mr MacLaverty grows in strength with each succeeding book... He is the master of the small, telling phrase, or the perfect line of description. His sense of place is always authentic, his dialogue pitched so naturally that one can hear it. In short, he's a wonder.
The Sunday Press (10.1.88)

Full of poignancy and grit...eleven pieces which mark an advance in the work of one of our finest writers, a unique sensibility who is, surely now, our shrewdest and most sensitive explorer of the inwardness of lives.
Tom Adair in The Scotsman (21.11.87)

These are finely-spun, powerful and compassionate stories. MacLaverty writes with a focused and penetrating intensity, his prose arrestingly simple.
Jean Gordon in Vogue (December 1987)

These stories will provoke reflections and wonder.
Publishers Weekly USA (March 18 1988)

These eleven stories will enrich your life.
Booklist Chicago (April 1 1988)

I love Bernard MacLaverty's first lines...deft, graceful, precise, and elegant... we are immediately absorbed into illusion. Trusting the voice, we take the journey.
John Dufresne in Short Story Review (Fall 1988)

We're in the hands of a master here... peerless short fiction... MacLaverty writes the way most people breathe - easily, deeply, like it was the most life-affirming activity in the world.
The Good Book Guide (August 1988)