Neil Hegarty's rich and intriguing second novel starts off in the realm of Victorian pastiche but ends up as a gripping present-day heist plot... [Hegarty] gives himself lots to juggle but manages with aplomb, setting the wounded trio at the book's heart on a grimly compelling collision course'
Daily Mail
Striking... Hegarty has gifted us a vital book ... Read morefor our time. Bathed in light, seeped in colour; it is full of the act of being mortal – in a landscape that is – slowly, finally – finding what it means to be human'
Irish Times
Irish author Neil Hegarty proves again that he is one to watch... Hegarty writes with sharp intelligence, which coupled with his strong storytelling and well-defined characters, results in a gripping plot that also offers an affecting insight into how artifice permeates our lives'
Observer
Dazzling, raw and moving... The writing is lyrical and poetic – some paragraphs are so exquisite as to feel almost ethereal'
Irish Times
Hegarty is adept at conjuring the texture of relationships ...The plot, as these three lives elide, is very much secondary to their particular histories and quirks. Hergarty has created a strange, unsettling novel that is, in its quiet way, a jewel
Spectator
[Hegarty] has a knack for navigating complex emotional territory with skill and sensitivity
Mail on Sunday
An original plot and characters ensures this book will stay with you long after you've turned the last page
Sunday Post
A beautifully written meditation on identity and grief, longing and loss, and the indelible colours childhood leaves on us all, The Jewel is one of this year's gems
Irish Independent
[Hegarty] crafts a hugely satisfying set of character studies, lost romances, bitter compromises and uneasy alliances, in the setting of a gripping gallery heist. A classy outing finding other dimensions to Hegarty's bothering perceptions of what makes us all tick
Belfast Telegraph.
A novel that bobs and weaves in quite an individualistic way and the quality of the writing from Hegarty [...] is consistently strong in expressing the yearning in the lives of these characters
Irish Examiner.
Skilful and frequently evocative powers of description. The Jewel also displays a fine ear for dialogue, along with a good eye for the workings of relationships, especially when things go awry
Dublin Review of Books
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