[A] perfectly judged and sensitively written novel
Scotland on Sunday
A compelling account of Forster's writing and of his sexual preoccupations and longings.
Observer
With insight and seemingly effortless fluidity, Damon Galgut has written a beautiful and funny book that movingly captures the duality of E.M. Forster, one of Britain's most thoughtful novelists.
The Economist, ... Read moreBooks of the Year
His [E M Forster's] plight is beautifully captured by Damon Galgut in this plangent novel, rich in period detail... Forster springs four-square from the page.
Books of the Year, Daily Mail
Preoccupied by varieties of sadness - but is so crisply written, with a deceptive simplicity and directness, that it feels full of affirmations
Summer picks
Guardian
How apt that Arctic Summer, a chronicle of a writer's longest journey to complete his masterpiece, also happens to be Galgut's finest book to date.
The Herald (Scotland)
Galgut's gifts - of phrasing, of structure, of perception - are on faultless form in these pages... Arctic Summer is a masterpiece.
Sunday Business Post
A beautifully imagined piece, getting deep inside the mind of a major English novelist.
Mail on Sunday
A masterly piece of fiction. Delicate and detailed.
Daily Mail
Galgut has so seamlessly incorporated Forster's diaries, letters and novels into his narrative that it is often hard to tell which novelist is which.
Daily Telegraph
It is a project to which Galgut, whose fiction has often covered the terrain of love, race and politics, seems perfectly suited as a writer... A remarkable, lyrical tribute.
Guardian
With insight and seemingly effortless fluidity, Mr Galgut has written a beautiful, and at times funny, novel that movingly captures the duality of one of Britain's most thoughtful authors.
Economist
Galgut is extremely good on Forster's anxieties, his loneliness, his unworldliness... The portrait is beautifully nuanced, a mixture of bold, colourful strokes and delicate little flicks of the brush.
Sunday Times
Beautifully written and utterly compelling... A vivid, moving account of the man that makes you want to read all his books again.
The Times
Could well be one of the finest literary works published this year... Damon Galgut, among the finest living writers, has not only given life to a quiet enigma who suffered in love but looked at the inspiration and need that helped that enigma write six major novels.
Irish Times
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