Wonderfully humane, lucid and entertaining ... a brave and necessary tract for the times

A great, provocative book ... that will legitimately change how you think about the world and your own sense of morality

Bloom dismantles the argument that empathy is the basis of all morality … Empathy, it turns out, is sentimental, superficial and racist

The title may shock, but this is a book of calm reason and expansive compassion. It’s also a pleasure to read: warm, lucid, and thought-provoking

I couldn’t put this brilliantly argued book down. Engaging and witty, learned and stim­ulating, provocative and packed with cutting-edge findings, Against Empathy is sure to start many important debates

Despite a near consensus about the merits of empathy, Paul Bloom shows that it is often just the warm embrace of prejudice – and, like anger, a reliable source of moral confusion. Against Empathy is a thrilling book, and reading it could well make you a better person

I went in a sceptic and emerged a convert … one of the most thought-provoking, and ultimately convincing, books I’ve read in a long time

Brilliant, powerful, and provocative, Against Empathy is sure to be one of the most controversial books of our time

Bloom's point is a good one ... In a time of post-truth politics, his book offers a much-needed call for facts

A deliberately maverick work – astringent, provocative, often witty and unabashedly against a prevailing culture ... I am staunchly with Bloom

A brilliant, witty, and convincing defence of rational generosity against its pain-feeling detractors. Read this book and you will never think about empathy, goodness, or cold- blooded reason the same way again

Plaudits to Bloom for speaking up, not only against the overemphasis on empathy, but also in favour of reason. Bloom takes readers on a stimulating tour of current research in psychology, mixed with some older philosophy, that will educate and entertain readers. A wise and important book.

Invigorating, relevant and often very funny

An interesting and highly topical work of moral philosophy by psychologist … about the ancient conflict between reason and emotion, science and sentiment … an important book

Compiles evidence from a range of sources to show that empathy can be innumerate, biased, parochial and inconsistent and can push us towards inaction at best and racism and violence at worst

Paul Bloom’s wonderfully humane, lucid and entertaining demolition of the empathy-worshippers… is a brave and necessary tract for the times

In Against Empathy, Bloom provides a thoughtful, considered, empirically grounded case which challenges many notions that we often accept as good without really thinking them through… Against Empathy is a wonderfully argued, provocative polemic against the trend to see empathy as an unalloyed good

This beautiful memoir – tender, informative, unflinching, every sentence filled with compassion – has reminded me that when I have felt most alone I am, of course, not alone at all

An eye-opener ... written with real tenderness

A highly intelligent writer bringing all her narrative skills to bear on a profession in which she spent 20 years ... what emerges time and again is that nursing is about so much more than medicine ... Christie Watson is a wonderful writer. But I can't help thinking she was an even better nurse

Watson writes so well, movingly but sparingly, that the result is a profoundly vivid impression of working in a busy hospital

I was enthralled from the start. Nurses’ voices are rarely heard and Christie is so honest, wise and observant of people that she is just the person to do their story justice. And of course she writes beautifully. The image that stayed with me long after I had put the book down was of the nurse always with the patient, even after everybody else has gone

Christie Watson writes with the fullness of her heart to give us insight into the world of patients and nursing, inspiring us to recognise it is how we treat people, how we speak and respond to them, as well as what we do, that heals. Its message of self-compassion and kindness is as useful for those of us outside the medical world, as in it

It's that combination of fierce compassion and unflinching honesty about the human cost of nursing which makes this such a compelling and universally relevant book. It couldn't be more topical, or timeless, and the fact that it's written with an elegant grace that makes it a joy to read doesn't hurt either

There is so much love in this book that it makes the tears bearable. Christie Watson has written a beautiful and lyrical account of the true meaning of a nurse’s life

Christie Watson shines the wisest of lights on the daily practice of caring for others. She celebrates kindness that is rooted in true respect for human dignity and equality – a kindness without which society would be a much sadder place. This piercingly tender book will make you laugh, cry and reflect on what life is all about

Moving, eloquent, funny, inspiring -- an urgent book for our times

Terrifically moving memoir of caring and compassion on the nursing front line

A remarkable book… Watson illustrates why a nurse has a harder job than 99 per cent of lawyers (I am one) and deserves to be paid more. Absolutely brilliant!

More than a memoir, The Language of Kindness exerts the power of a gripping novel threaded with science, philosophy, history and ethics. Like poetry, it resists paraphrase. A quick summary is out of the question, this brilliant life-changing book has to be experienced ... Watson is a funny, totally loveable narrator but this book is a serious shock to the system -- a journey to the underworld, our hard-working guide an observant Virgil to the 21st century

If you want to know what nursing is, then read this book

This is a phenomenal book, a love song for the NHS and its staff - the hundreds of millions of us who have gained from it throughout our lives have Christie Watson to thank for delivering it on our behalf. Passionate, political, heartbreaking, it is beautifully written in the fiercely honest language of kindness itself

Profoundly moving... urging us all to lead a life of greater compassion

An astonishing account of a profession defined by acts of care, compassion and kindness, and an urgent reminder of the need for these qualities in the NHS - and everyday life - from a nurse with 20 years' experience

A remarkable book - intelligent, impassioned, consistently moving - that can’t help but make readers revisit the sharpest spikes of life, where nurses often are. Christie Watson looks directly at the fragility of human existence, and the importance of what we choose to value. I can't think of many better uses of writing, nor of writing more likely to make me a better person

I defy anyone to finish this without weeping and giving thanks to the NHS ... An important book that should be on every reading list

Christie Watson’s book brings home the incredible strength and determination that nurses working in our critically underfunded NHS must possess – and how wildly underappreciated they are

Gripping and tender

A remarkable reflection on care, empathy and compassion ... packs massive emotional impact ... I urge you to read it

This tender, truth-telling memoir will break your heart into little pieces ... This book is a salient reminder that at some point we are all going to need care and we can only hope we'll get someone like Christie who understands the need for "sympathy, compassion, empathy" in our most vulnerable moments

The award-winning novelist writes about her 20 years as a nurse, taking us from life to death of the wards in a moving account

As Watson observes, the ability to step into another’s shoes is essential for both nurse and novelist. So too is an eagle eye, and it is the details that prove so unforgettable ... I found myself compelled to go back, and freshly moved and humbled

A highly emotional and eloquent retelling of different patients, staffers, experiences and departments ... A much-needed human voice

[Watson] writes with such considered awareness of medical procedure and resources, human frailty and resilience, that you know she dug deep for this book ... You are also privy to an extraordinary world and appreciate Watson's lasting belief: that most of us are inherently kind - and the better for showing it

The Language of Kindness is teeming with humanity ... [It] puts other memoirs to shame, by narrating an ordinary working life which nevertheless confronts the dark, the sublime, the transcendental

Her book makes harrowing, heart-rendering reading.

An engaging and authentic portrait of modern care ... Through Watson’s inclusion of relevant statistics and historical facts, as well as her meticulous observation skills, readers will better understand the value of nurses

Hypnotic prose ... quiet brilliance ... This is a wake-up book in the best possible way, a study in-the-round: amusing, hilarious even, enthralling and sad, and definitely an indictment of our time

We hear far less often from nurses and therapists… It’s time we heard their side of the story. And who better to tell it than this nurse-turned-award-winning literary novelist.

Anecdotal story-telling wrapped up in hypnotic prose… This is a wake-up book in the best possible way, a study in-the-round: amusing, hilarious even, enthralling and sad, and definitely an indictment of our time.

A remarkable book. I learned more in chapter 3 than I have in all the other books I’ve read this year. Watson illustrates why a nurse has a harder job than 99 per cent of lawyers (I am one) and deserves to be paid more. Absolutely brilliant!

The Language of Kindness flows so beautifully, and naturally. Christie adds real warmth to very factual, and medical information … I urge all of you to read this book

[Watson] beautifully describes the life-affirming impact of nurses doing and saying the right thing

[Watson] tells us things we need to know

[The Language of Kindness is] a tender and beautifully written account of how this process – learning how to be kind – challenges, teaches, sometimes harms, and then completes a person

At the heart of Christie Watson’s philanthropic memoir…lies a remarkable thesis on life, death and the kaleidoscopic narratives…that weave us together

This stunning read reminds us that nurses are human after all

Christie Watson's memoir of 20 years as an NHS nurse is completely absorbing. The best books tell us about life as well as lives and I've read nothing recently that I found so moving and, even in its descriptions of suffering and death, so uplifting. Watson has an eye for detail that is practical, compassionate and very often funny

Christie captures life as a nurse in the humblest manner, and anyone in or considering nursing is encouraged to read it

Watson’s prose…fizzes with real life, each story and encounter containing its own epic narrative sweep

This brilliant and profound book left an indelible mark on me this year

Moving and compassionate…The Language of Kindness… is a sensitive, perceptive and blunt account of a nurse’s journey

An astounding account of life as a nurse

The Language of Kindness exerts the power of a gripping novel threaded with science, philosophy, history and ethics. Like poetry, it resists paraphrase. A quick summary is out of the question, this brilliant life-changing book has to be experienced.

Watson evokes the topography of each arm of nursing in vivid detail.

I defy anyone to finish this without weeping and giving thanks for the NHS… An important book that should be on every reading list.

The Language of Kindness could not be more compelling or more welcome. It's about how we survive, and about the people who help us do so

[A] powerful account of her life as a nurse… reading her memoir is a truly uplifting experience.

A nurse’s voice has never really been heard before on this scale. Now’s the time for it to ring loud.

[Watson] is an elegant, eloquent writer who brings an immediacy to her work. You are right there beside her all the way as she provides a fascinating insight into the trails and triumphs of life in an NHS hospital… a rallying call for kindness and compassion that every one of us should embrace.

Through Watson, we are taken on an absorbing, all-seeing tour through the doors of the hospital