A masterclass in suspense.

Moshfegh is one of the most original and astute young novelists working today.

Routinely hailed as one of the most exciting young American authors working today... Her work takes dirty realism and makes it filthier. But it is is also beautiful...the depravity of her material matched by the purity and precision of her prose.

Ottessa Moshfegh's Death in Her Hands is a new kind of murder mystery... The work of a writer who is, like Henry James or Vladimir Nabokov, touched by both genius and cruelty... Like a surgeon, or a serial killer, Moshfegh flenses her characters, and her readers, until all that's left is a void. It's the amused contemplation of that void that gives rise to the dark exhilaration of her work -- its wayward beauty, its comedy, and its horror.

Much more than a whodunnit... This is a story about what might happen when a woman takes charge... A glorious visceral mystery... Moshfegh is as wise and wild as Ali Smith or Rebecca Solnit, and as gifted a scribe of nature as Annie Dillard or Thoreau.

Ottessa Moshfegh's postmodern whodunit...burnishes Moshfegh's claim as one of the most distinctive American writers around.

[Death in Her Hands] cracks open like a matryoshka doll, revealing multiple tales within... Its dark, devious portrait of the troubled psychology of a lonely, stymied woman makes a mark all of its own.

[A] brilliant off-kilter detective story... An eerie, affecting read.

Clever, dark, funny... A gripping story.

There is an unspoken fascination in those we find abhorrent and Moshfegh writes these women with wit and intrigue, treading a fine line between shocking realism and the absurd.

Death in her Hands is a return to the dark humour that marks Moshfegh's work to date, making it sure to hit the sweet spot with established fans.

An eerie, affecting book.

A darkly funny tale.

Moshfegh returns to the violent timbre of her debut Eileen.

In sending up the detective genre, Moshfegh is true to her mischievous persona.

Blending sharp tongue-in-cheek parody, genuine suspense and a disorientingly unreliable narrator, Death in Her Hands is wildly accomplished, if at times unwieldy. There's always been an existential dread to Moshfegh's writing and here it triumphs as the muddy shadows of an old woman's mind.

A story of brooding anxiety that expands on Moshfegh's writerly obsessions.

Death in Her Hands isn't a conventional mystery, and it isn't going to give you the satisfaction of a conventional ending. But it does satisfy, and in ways I hadn't expected. I hope that, for Moshfegh, this is the new abnormal.

A beautiful novel.

Slow-burning, mind-bending light fantasy

An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship - nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.

The Martian author Andy Weir returns with another space-survival saga, chocka dense with dry scientific debate, but also humour, humanity, a nourish case of memory loss and a credible injection of fantasy.

Science and fiction in near-perfect harmony . . . Few novels are such a brilliant advert for STEM. Science-ing the shit" out of a problem is what [Weir] is best at.

Anappara impressively inhabits the inner worlds of children lost to their families

A first novel of true distinction… There is true Dickensian vigour in the way Anappara evokes the noise and smells, the timeless boredom and the fear of life in the Basti, the slum dwelling… I cannot recommend this too highly

A stunningly original tale. I stayed up late every night until I finished, reluctant to part from Deepa Anappara’s heart-stealing characters

Life in the slums of an Indian city is vividly described in this novel... Though the subject matter is heartbreaking, this debut author handles it with lightness

A dazzling journey into the heart of India and its most vulnerable citizens -- its impoverished and disenfranchised children. A novel at once brimming with the wonder of childhood innocence, and constrained by the heartache of living amidst injustice and prejudice. Deepa Anappara shows us a modern, dangerously divided India that has long needed to be seen

A profoundly emphatic work of creative genius that will stay with you forever

Created from whole cloth, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a richly textured rendition of a world little seen in Indian literature. There is no desire to smooth and tidy in fiction what is untidy in life, but instead there is a pay off for the reader in a story that is as quietly troubling as it is convincing

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is unlike any book I have ever read—surprising, vividly imagined, and full of humor and humanity—and I fell head over heels for Jai, the police-show-obsessed narrator on a quest to find his missing classmate. Deepa Anappara is a writer of rare insight and a sure-footed storyteller. This book will charm you on one page, and rip your heart out on the next

Deepa Anappara takes us inside urban India with astonishing specificity, into a funny and heartbreaking child’s world of wonder and cruelty. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is addictive and unforgettable. Once you’re in Jai’s neighbourhood you don't want to leave

Informed by her times as a journalist in Mumbai and Delhi, Deepa Anappara’s debut is a fine portrait of modern-day India… an utterly convincing voice–lively, cheeky and irrepressible… Anappara skilfully reveals the harsh reality that lies just beyond Jai’s understanding of his world

A story full of humor, warmth, and heartbreak … Jai's voice is irresistible: funny, vivid, smart, and yet always believably a child's point of view … Engaging characters, bright wit, and compelling storytelling make a tale that's bleak at its core and profoundly moving

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is likely to be one of the country's standout works of fiction in 2020

Vivid writing and a gripping plot with an unforgettable narrator

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is less a reading experience than an encounter with a life force. The rattle-tattle energy of the basti will pull the readers in as they experience the smells, colours and tastes of this captivating world. From relaying the rampant poverty to inherent cultural barriers, to corruption including openly bribing police, the book is utterly mesmerising

Anappara’s debut novel immediately charms through Jai’s voice, and Anappara has caught the scale of a child’s world perfectly… Djinn Patrol is the kind of novel you both can’t stop reading and don’t want to end, because it means letting go of characters who feel like friends

This moving and stylish book pulls off a difficult trick. It is an engaging, amusing tale, powered by Jai’s ebullient personality; at the same time it is an insightful portrait of the underside of 21st-century India… As Dickens did, Ms Anappara understands the power of fiction to bring alive the plights of people readers might otherwise overlook

What really sets Djinn Patrol apart…is the authenticity of Jai’s voice. Narrating in the first person, Anappara immerses us not only in Jai’s world of deep social inequities, but also in his internal world… Anappara creates an endearing and highly engaging narrator to navigate us through the dark underbelly of modern India