'ONE OF OUR MOST SKILFUL CHRONICLERS OF THE HUMAN HEART AND MIND' Sunday Times
Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award
'Astoundingly good'
The Times
'Dazzling'
Observer
'Timeless'
Spectator
The extraordinary prize-winning debut from Andrew Miller - a highly imaginative, atmospheric first novel
At the dawn of the Enlightenment, a man is born unable to feel pain. A source of wonder and scientific curiosity as a child, he rises through the ranks of Georgian society to become a brilliant surgeon. Yet as a human being he fails, for he can no more feel love and compassion than pain. Until, en route to St Petersburg to inoculate the Empress Catherine, he meets his nemesis and saviour.
PRAISE FOR ANDREW MILLER
'Unique, visionary, a master at unmasking humanity'
Sarah Hall
'A writer of very rare and outstanding gifts'
Independent on Sunday
'A highly intelligent writer, both exciting and contemplative'
The Times
'A wonderful storyteller'
Spectator
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 9780340682081
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 252 g
Dimensions: 196 x 128 x 28 mm
A wild adventure through 18th-century England and Russia, medicine, madness, landscape and weather, rendered in prose of consummate beauty - Books of the Year, Independent
A really remarkable first novel, original, powerfully written . . . Miller's narrative is gripping and his imagination extraordinary - Sunday Telegraph
Astoundingly good . . . it shines like a beacon - The Times
Timeless and thought-provoking . . . it is something very rare in modern fiction, a true work of art - Spectator
Gripping . . . a dazzling debut - Observer
Dazzling . . . Miller tackles notions of mortality and humanity to brilliant effect . . . truly wonderful - Evening Standard
An extraordinary first novel . . . one is constantly delighted with strange and vivid imagery, fresh and startling metaphors, flashes of insight, deft twists of plot and resonant variations on dominant themes . . . a mature novel of ideas soaked in the sensory detail of its turbulent times - New York Times Book Review
Exceptionally intelligent and elegant . . . remarkable for its feeling and its humane sensibility - Sunday Times
A true rarity: a debut novel which is original, memorable, engrossing and subtle - Guardian
Strange, unsettling, sad, beautiful and profound . . . the sense of period is brilliantly handled - Literary Review
More than merits comparison with the likes of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus and Patrick Süskind's Perfume . . . a blistering debut - Time Out
The novel's evocation of the period, down to the finest detail, is thoroughly confident . . . a startling novel - Independent on Sunday
A finely wrought and provocative novel - Daily Telegraph
Impressive - Mail on Sunday
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