Toni Morrison makes me believe in God. She makes me believe in a divine being, because luck and genetics don’t seem to come close to explaining her

A beautiful and important book

Powerful, elemental... The issues Morrison explores go to the root of what humanity is. They could not be more important

Left me trembling at the sheer brilliance of its storytelling and the unassailable dignity of its purpose

So enthralling that you'll want to read it more than once

Varied and authoritative and frequently beautiful

An enduring, evocative read which carefully weaves fragmented, personal experiences into a layered, ambivalent narrative about slavery and the price of freedom

Morrison is at the very height of her powers

For all its restraint, and its sinister stealth, A Mercy is a furious novel, a volley of anger, contempt and sorrow... the rich and seemingly casual evocative accretion of background and narrative slowly tightens its grip until the reader is utterly in thrall

Emotions run deep and twisted in Morrison's fiction; and their outcome is superbly traced in this powerful, flawed and genuinely creative novel

A truly brilliant story that should be much better known

Moving from the gorgeously epic to the unflinchingly intimate, The Translation of Love takes us to the emotional core of Occupied Japan. It captures the strange, liminal time between destruction and recovery, and the uttermost vulnerability of those carrying on in the rubble of uncertainty and loss. This beautiful and mesmerizing book will be a special treat for anyone who loves dramatic history and ingenious storytelling.

An exquisitely crafted tale of war's survivors that shimmers with grace, wisdom and compassion. It compels the reader right up to its gorgeous and deeply humane conclusion.

Lynne Kutsukake’s remarkable debut spans the emotional terrain between identity and loyalty, love and loss, victory and defeat. The Translation of Love resonates with vivid images of post-war Japan and the universal urge to build a new life atop the wreckage of the old. This is a bold, beautiful book.

A Translation of Love is an unusual historical novel, one suggesting that even in a hopeless situation and a rapidly changing world, perseverance, loyalty, and resourcefulness go a long way.

One of the themes that stood out in the novel was the many layers of change—people and countries shifting, and the tension that comes with that. On the micro level, you have a young girl adjusting to a culture that’s at once her own and totally new, while on the macro level Japan is in a huge state of flux.

A heady blend of detailed historical research and compelling storytelling ... an elegant, moving debut

Offers insight into the minds of those who lived through this time, showing the difficulty of starting over when everything you know has been lost [and] book showcases the strength of character and determination that helped Japan rebuild itself.

A charming and touching novel... sensitively written

The Translation of Love is a rarity: a haunting mystery that is also a moving coming-of-age story. A remarkable, beautiful first novel.

Few writers can boast such a literary heritage as Juliet Nicolson, granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, who turns her astute historian’s eye onto her own family history.

An engaging history-cum-memoir… Strongest when exploring the tender relationship between Nicolson and her father after her mother’s death as a result of alcoholism, her own struggles with the same condition, the knife-twist of grief when one loses a parent, and the emotional rush of motherhood.

I would recommend everyone to read this book

Juliet Nicolson is firing on all cylinders ... She is able to write about powerful emotion in a way that is both heartfelt and unselfconscious ... It makes the book perfectly personal as well as a fascinating history

This book is a marvellous illustration of the often forgotten fact that people in history were real, with real ambition, real passion and real rage. All these women took life by the throat and shook it. It’s a wonderful read, and a powerful reminder of the significance of our matrilineal descent

Juliet Nicolson's book will engage the hearts and minds of daughters and sons everywhere. She has turned my attention to much in my life, and I am full of admiration for her clarity and gentleness

I loved A House Full of Daughters. I was initially intrigued, then gripped, and then when she began writing about herself, deeply moved and admiring of the way in which she charted her own journey. An illuminating book in which she charts the inevitability of family life and the damage and gifts that we inherit from the previous generations

A fascinating, beautifully written, brutally honest family memoir. I was riveted. This is a book to read long into the night

I was riveted... She is so astute about mother/daughter relationships and the tenderness of fathers and daughters. She deeply understands the way problems pass down through generations... I congratulate her on her fierce understanding.

Juliet Nicolson’s writing is so confident and assured. She combines the magic of a novelist with the rigour of a historian, and the result is thrilling and seriously powerful

Once I started it was impossible to stop. I was totally absorbed by Juliet Nicolson's large-souled approach to family memoir down the generations, drawing the reader into lives that reverberate with achievement and suffering... movingly original

A moving and very revealing account of seven generations of strong and yet curiously vulnerable mothers and daughters

An outstanding book about a gifted, unconventional family told through the female line. Insightful, painfully honest, beautifully written and full of love, wisdom, compassion, loss, betrayal and self-doubt. A House Full of Daughters will resonate down the years for all who read it

An engaging memoir in which Nicolson lays bare discoveries about herself, but also gives a fascinating inside take on her renowned, and already much scrutinized, forebears. She also has much that is thought-provoking to say about mothers and daughters, marriage and the way in which damaging patterns can repeat down generations.

Nicolson is perceptive on difficult mother-daughter relationships.

A fascinating personal look at family, the past and love.

Beautifully written history… She has as easy and elegant a style as her many writer relations, so this book is seductively readable. It could be described as a late addition to the ‘Bloomsbury’ shelves, but that should not put off anyone who feels enough has been said about that particular group. I found it touching and fascinating. In admitting that Nigel Nicolson was a friend, I can say with confidence that he would have been painfully proud of his daughter’s candid confession.

Highly readable, no-holds barred tale.

Nicolson has written a poignant and courageous history.

The most enjoyable book to take on holiday would undoubtedly be Juliet Nicolson’s A House Full of Daughters… It is ideal holiday reading.

A simple premise looking at seven generations of women in one family, but it's got all the juicy bits of several novels in one

[An] ambitious memoir.

An entrancing book… A poignant, well-written memoir-cum-social history

A fine family memoir.

This engrossing book charts seven generations of a family who were obsessive documenters of their lives through diaries, letters, memoirs and autobiographical novels… Interwoven with the personal is a portrait of society’s changing expectations of women, and the struggle to break free from patriarchy. Here, brilliantly laid bare, are both the trials of being a daughter and of documenting daughterhood in all its complexity.

A charming book about the female side of Nicolson’s family tree.