A brilliant, compelling account of what it is like to spend your days caring for patients "on the fringe of existence" ... A hugely life-affirming book. In between the many grim situations encountered on a daily basis, Abbey shows us moments of both joy and deep emotional connection

Heartfelt, honest, illuminating and wise – a wonderful book that I would urge everyone to read

A powerful glimpse into the high stakes of intensive care …Above all this book is insightful about the grey areas where a doctor must go ... Some readers may be wearying of doctor memoirs. This one ... has a freshness and a sincerity that moved me. She is a gifted writer ... honest, compassionate, sensitive… [and] the doctor we would crave in our greatest need

Abbey’s book stands out among the current crop of doctor-penned memoirs for its thoughtful, compassionate reflections on life in Intensive Care. Abbey presents the usual case studies with an unusual depth of feeling and evident love for those in her care. She may be in the earlier stages of her career, but the author writes with a maturity and vocational fervour well beyond her years. An unsung classic of the genre

A thoughtful and necessary book about a world all of us might inhabit at some point in our lives

A wonderfully frank assessment of the emotions shared – and unshared – between doctors and their patients ... Dr Abbey writes movingly ... and asks us all to think about what we want for ourselves at the end.

Bold, courageous and most welcome ... Abbey imparts a wisdom concerning human emotional life that is sophisticated, and also simple and poignant ... Abbey is brave; she is lion-hearted in her no-holes-barred account of what it is like to care for a living ... If she is representative of an emerging generation of healthcare professionals, there is reason to be optimistic for the future of healthcare.

A sensitive, honest, unsentimental and, yes, brave piece of writing that makes for compulsive reading

A beautiful insight into the extraordinary highs and lows of intensive care. Dr Aoife Abbey writes with such sensitivity and obvious kindness about the emotions that define us all, doctors and patients alike. I was deeply moved by this wonderful book.

Effortlessly absorbing and illuminating ... Seven Signs of Life offers a prismatic set of arguments for a truth that we too often forget: doctors, nurses and consultants are human, too ... a perspective that feels like new territory ... Measured out in Abbey's crystalline, personable voice, it occurs to you that this is a somewhat Herculean feat.

Aoife Abbey’s honesty and insight are breath-taking. If you want to find out what it is really like to be a doctor, read this book.

Illness is a thicket through which doctors and patients struggle—sometimes at odds, sometimes in concert. Into the harrowing penumbra between life and death come Dr. Abbey's signs of intelligent life. These seven cogent chapters probe the range of experience and emotions that patients, families, and medical workers must navigate. A welcome addition to the medical-literary canon.

Honest, compelling and compassionate ... worthy of a place on the medical school curriculum ... Dr Abbey is the type of doctor most people I think would want to find at the side of their bed if they were critically ill. This is a book with a warm heart, but also does not shy from honesty ... This is not a grim read. It's beautifully written, with valuable insights about how different patients and their families want different things from her and it is fascinating.

An extended, often lyrical, reflection on the complex web of emotions – fear and hope, grief and joy – evoked by the routine life and death dramas of the intensive care unit

Excellent... An absolutely spellbinding insight into being an intensive care doctor

Seven Signs of Life set out to share the world of intensive care through compelling storytelling…touching, educational, and encouraging. They are stories worth telling, and for the doctor and non-doctor alike, stories worth reading

Raw power . . . She is trying to lay bare the complex feelings of people who make life-or-death decisions on a daily basis. . . . What Abbey wants us to understand is that doctors too weep and rage, that although they might keep their expressions flat and their voices even, that's because they've been trained to stay cool in high-drama moments, not because they're cold people

[Seven Signs of Life] has a moving sincerity and freshness. Abbey is a talented writer and a wise voice on the dilemmas surrounding death

[A] harrowing, [but] ultimately beautiful, book about life as an intensive-care doctor is one of the best from the recent rash of medical memoirs

I tore through EXPECTATION at the weekend. Exceptional gorgeously written and reads like a love letter to London. I highly recommend it

I absolutely loved this. What really appealed to me was the depiction of the parents, about legacy and about what the mother's generation leaves for the one that comes after

An intimate and touching portrayal of female friendship that shows it's okay to just be

So fresh, human, kind and relatable

Such a dark, relatable, elegant take on how time alters female friendships: how we become THESE people and our friends become THOSE people. Anyway, I loved it. You probably will, too

A must-read. Will make you want to hug the women in you life

A deftly crafted hymn to the comfort and frustration of female friendship from one of our most gifted contemporary writers

Sensual and evocative, deeply attuned to both the inner lives of the protagonists

The prose is beautiful, the characters achingly real, their flawed decisions enraging and yet somehow still relatable. This wonderful book will resonate with every woman who reads it

A quietly political story that suggests historic battles have left women with new impossible burdens of expectation. A marvellously tangy London novel

Hope beautifully examines how female friendship, its issues entirely relatable, ebbs and flows over time in this wise and engaging read

Hugely absorbing, massively enjoyable

A deftly crafted hymn to the comfort and frustration of female friendship from one of our most gifted contemporary writers

Sensitive, resonant, addictive

A story that resonates with anyone who has tried and failed and tried again as they contemplate that gap between what is possible and what is not.

Compulsive and beautifully told storytelling - an ode to 21st century London and an examination of the pressures of modern society

completely redefines the friendship novel. I am in awe of the way Anna Hope captures what it means to be a woman, right here, right now.

Hope is adept at characterisation. The friends are fantastically well-realised.

The story of 3 college friends, if you're a fan of Sally Rooney, you'll love EXPECTATION

A grown-up, honest take on female camaraderie. Packed with talking points

Fantastic. Beautifully written, sharply observed and saying important things

BOOK OF THE YEAR. It's the book we're all buying for our sisters and besties this Christmas.

Brings to vivid life that particular tension one feels just before middle age, when it begins to become clear that life won’t end up looking exactly they way we thought it would. An outstanding novel

Anna Hope's beautifully observed study of female friendship is a moving account of the collision between aspiration and reality

Fantastically well-realised portrait of female friendship's joys and pains from an exciting new voice in British fiction