Time and again, Emma Donoghue writes books that are unlike anything I have ever seen before.
Ann Patchett Frog Music is a roiling, simmering brew of a novel: dramatic, unexpected
Spectator
This is another smart and finely wrought consideration of parenthood, further proof of Donoghue's significant skill as an author
Alex Preston
Observer
Emma ... Read moreDonoghue is one of the great literary ventriloquists of our time. Her imagination is kaleidoscopic. She steps borders and boundaries with great ease and style. In her hands the centuries dissolve, and then they crystallize back again into powerful words on the page.
Colum McCann Emma Donoghue follows her bestseller Room with Frog Music. Set during a smallpox epidemic in San Francisco in 1876 and based on a true story, a burlesque dancer sets out to bring her friend's murderer to justice.
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Daily Express
The novel is brilliant as historical fiction and crime thriller... it succeeds best when showing the everyday things that don't change with time
Independent on Sunday
Donoghue flawlessly combines literary eloquence and vigorous plotting in her first full-fledged mystery, a work as original and multifaceted as its young murder victim . . . In language spiced with musical interludes and raunchy French slang, Donoghue brings to teeming life the nasty, naughty side of this ethnically diverse metropolis . . . Most of her seedy, damaged characters really lived, and she not only posits a clever solution to a historical crime that was never adequately solved but also crafts . . . an engrossing and suspenseful tale about moral growth, unlikely friendship, and breaking free from the past.
Booklist
Lively, entertaining and well-written
Evening Standard
More fine work from one of popular fiction's most talented practitioners . . . Donoghue's vivid rendering of Gilded Age San Francisco is notable for her atmospheric use of popular songs and slang in Blanche's native French, but the book's emotional punch comes from its portrait of a woman growing into self-respect as she takes responsibility for the infant life she's created.
Kirkus Reviews
Swift and absorbing
Vogue
Emma Donoghue shows more than range with Frog Music - she shows genius. Like and unlike her stunning Room, this novel lifts into view a strange crime, a remarkable woman, and is a Ringling Brothers-grade feat of narrative strength. As ever, Donoghue focuses on people on the skirts of the world, who make their way outside the common middle of things. Blanche and Jenny are characters you will never forget, filmed in vibrant, cinemascope prose, and they mark Emma Donoghue's greatest achievement yet.
Darin Strauss, author of HALF A LIFE Donoghue's first literary crime novel is a departure from her bestselling Room, but it's just as dark and just as gripping as the latter . . . Aside from the obvious whodunit factor, the book is filled with period song lyrics and other historic details, expertly researched and flushed out . . . Donoghue's signature talent for setting tone and mood elevates the book from common cliffhanger to a true chef d'oeuvre.
Publishers Weekly
It is certainly crazy, but it is also pretty gripping. Oh, and it is full of filthy sex
Sunday Times
Those who raced through Emma Donoghue's Room will pounce upon her new and deliciously dark whodunit set in 19th Century San Francisco.
Anna Brech, This Summer's Best Beach Books and Holiday Reads
Stylist
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