THE "ATLANTIC MONTHLY" BEST BOOKS OF 2009
THE "WALL STREET JOURNAL" BEST FICTION OF 2009
"LIBRARY JOURNAL" BEST BOOKS OF 2009
FAVORITE FICTION OF 2009 FROM THE "LOS ANGELES TIMES
"James Lasdun's great gift is his instinct for the vertiginous
moments when the essence of a life discloses itself. In sharply
evoked settings that range from the wilds of northern Greece to the
beaches of Cape Cod, these intensely dramatic tales chart the
metamorphoses of their characters as they fall prey to the range of
human passions. As James Wood has written, "James Lasdun seems to
me to be one of the secret gardens of English writing. . . . When
we read him we know what language is for."