Both impossible to put down and beautifully written: a great combo

An astute, unsentimental critique of the contemporary world in crisis... Osborne handles surface and depth with immense skill, as only great writers can do. Beautiful Animals is his most accomplished book so far -- a big, clever, crazed beast of a novel

Often almost literally bristling with menace… his Hydra is rugged with physical immediacy. Silhouetted against it, emotions fluctuate, sexual frissons flicker back and forth, destinies tremble in the balance… It’s the brilliance with which Osborne conjures all this up that leaves you eager to see where his nomadic imagination will take him next

Osborne is a startlingly good observer of privilege, noting the rites and rituals of the upper classes with unerring precision and an undercurrent of malice

Osborne is a startlingly good observer of privilege, noting the rites and rituals of the upper classes with unerring precision and an undercurrent of malice… The novel takes on the tone of an existential noir, evoking writers like Jean-Patrick Manchette and Georges Simenon... An heir to Graham Greene... he shares with Greene an interest in what might be called the moral thriller

Complex and thrilling, Beautiful Animals confirms Osborne as one of Britain’s very best novelists

Beautiful Animals is terrifically well constructed, written with mean authority, brilliantly evocative about place … A masterpiece of disaffection

Spare, subtle… brilliantly achieved

Osborne is interested in what his characters do when events are wrested out of their control, his narratives unfurling like a set of carefully lined-up dominoes… It’s exciting for sure, but cuts closer to the bone than Osborne’s previous novels and is all the more distressing and depressing for it

Superlatively gripping… Osborne plunges his characters far from the luminescent surface and into the darkest depths

Cracking Greek noir

A thriller that is full of dazzling sunshine

Osborne crafts a rich, nourishing mood in his sun-drenched tale, while offering astute observations of privilege and obscene wealth ... a perfect read to devour in one go on a white-hot, breezeless day

A stylish, slow-burn novel… Atmospheric and well observed, with Osborne’s sinuous prose exerting its own fascination

A taut and provocative psychological thriller with a topical twist… His enthralling Greek tragedy is a deft examination of unchecked greed, twisted loyalties and the corrupted mind

Lawrence Osborne is an enigmatic, unpindownable writer

Beautiful Animals supplies two satisfying, but contradictory, feelings. On the one hand, you are immersed in the languid atmosphere of Hydra... But slipping through the charm with all the page-turning excitement of a beautifully written literary thriller is the nagging dread that something is about to go horribly wrong...

Osborne is both a consummate stylist and an acute observer of moral ambivalence and this quietly simmering, intoxicatingly good book lingers uneasily in the air, like a hangover

Tense, fateful

A cold-eyed look at bourgeois ennui and the parasitic nature of privilege… compulsive reading

An absorbing psychological study of greed, loyalty and cultural conflict

The bastard child of Graham Greene and Patricia Highsmith

A masterful and sophisticated psychological thriller that explores moral ambiguity from multiple perspectives

Taut psychological thriller that’s as sinister as it is thrilling. A real unputdownable effort that examines morality and privilege

Smart, seductive… A sophisticated page-turner

Osborne is a literary writer – and a brilliant one – and this sumptuously written superbly observed study of misplaced idealism and moral expediency reads a bit like a thriller penned by F Scott Fitzgerald

Malevolent, gripping… A compelling read, acutely observed and beautifully written. For all the character defects of the principal protagonists, the reader wants to find out what happens to them. It matters. And there can be no higher praise than that

This complex, thrilling novel focuses on Naomi Codrington, a young lawyer who befriends Samantha, a malleable American teenager, while summering with her father and stepmother on the Greek island of Hydra. When they find a Syrian refugee washed up on the shore, calamity comes rushes in.

Thrilling, chilling and contains the following subtext: best stay at home

The sequel to Beartown is finally here, and it does not disappoint.

This is a tale of the pitfalls of group mentality as well as the loss of an
innocence we all take for granted - and it will grip you from start to finish.

Just as the cult TV hit Friday Night Lights wasn't just about high-school
football, this sequel to Beartown is about more than small-town hockey.
Us Against You is a story of hopes, dreams, loyalty, friendship, and - after
someone is left for dead - the lengths people will go to for the love of the game.

We have a rare book for you. [Us Against You] is not only about hockeyand sports. It's about everything that makes a man a man.

Backman uses an abundance of thrilling hints about upcoming events,
and it works. You simply have to continue reading. The story is
wonderful, deeply touching and very thought-provoking, and hats off
again to the author's ability to portray people and trends in society. The
novel plays on your entire register of emotions, and you live and breathe
alongside the many different characters, all of which are precisely and empathetically depicted.

A beautiful and brutal drama.

"Fredrik Backman is one of Sweden's best authors. He's mastered how
to depict a village and its citizens so that you both love and hate them.
/.../ Backman writes with emotion, and it goes straight to your heart. /.../
As always with Backman, there's still hope for humanity, because wherethere is violence and hatred, there is also forgiveness and love."

Us Against You is an excellent novel that's easy to read and skillfully
handles great themes. /.../ The world created by Backman lives andbreathes and the characters are both human and complex.

Backman keeps you hooked from the first to the last page. For allBeartown fans, Us Against You feels like coming home.

Fredrik Backman writes wonderfully about men, with a love and
understanding for the ones who would rather solve conflicts with theirfists. It's hard not to love it.

Backman knows how to construct a thrilling plot, and what he writes
engages. /.../ And when he hits his stride among the emotions, the
sentimental turns into an asset - like a hockey puck straight to the heart.

The perfect book for the beach.

The most authentic, gripping presidential thriller ever.

The perfect book for the beach: a big, fast-paced, twisty engrossing thriller packed with spectacular detail of what it is really like to be President of the United States.

Fast-paced is too inadequate a description for this dark, suspense-filled tale.

Both a first-rate thriller and fascinating insight into the goings on within the White House.

A page-turner from start to finish

Insightful and gripping

A top-notch thriller.