Murakami shares with Alfred Hitchcock a fascination for ordinary people being suddenly plucked by extraordinary circumstances from their daily lives

Not just an impressive essay in witness literature, but also a unique sounding of the quotidian Japanese mind

A scrupulous and unhistrionic look into the heart of the horror

The testimonies he assembles are striking. From the very beginning Underground is impossibly moving and unexpectedly engrossing

There is no artifice or pretension in Underground. There is no need for cleverness. What Murakami describes happens to ordinary people in a frighteningly ordinary way. And it is all the more bizarre for that

A heart-wrenching anthology of the personal stories

I am deeply touched by these stories... Dear Zari should be read by anyone who cares and wants to know about Asia and Asian women

Intimate, emotional, often painful but at time uplifting, these stories uncover how the customs of this deeply religious and intensely traditional society can cause real suffering for many women'

This isn't a book for the faint-hearted, but is a chilling yet emotional read for anyone who cares to know about the real plight of Afghani women. A powerful collection of true-life stories compiled over the years (and re-introduced by the author's own experience). Dear Zari takes the blanket off Afghani women, showcasing the bleak reality of their existence

Dear Zari is disquieting but essential reading. Occasionally uplifting, frequently harrowing, and unfailingly candid, it is a must for anyone – male or female – seeking to better understand Afghanistan

Pankaj Mishra has produced a riveting account that makes new and illuminating connections. He follows the intellectual trail of this contested history with both intelligence and moral clarity. In the end we realise that what we are holding in our hands is not only a deeply entertaining and deeply humane book, but a balance sheet of the nature and mentality of colonisation

Highly readable and illuminating ... Mishra's analysis of Muslim reactions is particularly topical

Enormously ambitious but thoroughly readable, this book is essential reading for everyone who is interested in the processes of change that have led to the emergence of today's Asia

Sophisticated ... not so much polemic as cri de coeur, motivated by Mishra's keen sense of the world, East and West, hurtling towards its own destruction

Outstanding ... Mishra wears his scholarship lightly and weaves together the many strands of history into a gripping narrative ... The insights afforded by this book are too many to be enumerated ... Mishra performs a signal service to the future - by making us read the past in a fresh light

[Full of] complexity and nuance

Subtle, erudite and entertaining

Mishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia

A vital, nuanced argument ... prodigious