A bloody - and bloody brilliant - story of passion and revenge. Terrific

The Times

Bitter and brilliant . . . it could sit comfortably on any bookshelf beside Cormac McCarthy or Charles Frazier . . . the plot moves with precision, beautifully wrought. The author's acute sense of place is evident on every ... Read morepage

Guardian

A stunningly effective novel that is stark, fierce, dramatic and gripping from its unforgettable opening paragraph
Janet Maslin

New York Times, Top Ten Books of 2008

It's too hypnotic to break away from. Innocent people are in peril, and calamity seems as unstoppable . . . The final chapter is as flawless and captivating as anything I've read this year

Washington Post

Rash's evocative rendering of the blighted landscape and the tough characters who inhabit it recalls both John Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy, while the malignant character of Serena, who projects a "stark unflinching certainty" about her actions, propels his finely paced story

New Yorker

If Serena becomes famous as the basis for a coming Jennifer Lawrence-Bradley Cooper movie, never forget that it began as a fierce, breathtaking book, one of the greatest American novels in recent memory

New York Times

In an age when literary fiction is so intent on subtlety that it often winds up virtually inert, a novel with this much uncomplicated gusto and narrative drive is a rare thing; in the case of Serena, it's also a welcome one

Salon

A searing tragedy of Shakespearean proportions - or, in simpler terms, a damn good book that will keep you awake far too late and, well after you've finished it, haunt your dreams
Julia Glass, author of THREE JUNES A gorgeous, brutal novel
Richard Price, author of LUSH LIFE Show Less