"
Pereira Maintains is small only in size. Its themes are great ones - courage, betrayal, fidelity, love, corruption; and its treatment of them is subtle, skilful, and clear. It's so clear, in fact, that you can see a very long way down, into the heart of a flawed but valiant human being, into the sickness of a nation, into the depths of political evil. It's the most impressive novel I've read for years, and one of the very few that feels truly necessary" (Philip Pullman)
"
Every word of Mohsin Hamid's introduction is true: it's a stunningly good novel,
and it goes on getting better in one's head after one has stopped reading it -
it works as an experience - something that has happened to one, which is
of course, the proof of great writing.
" (Diana Athill)
"A brilliant, profound book that also manages to be a thriller" (Roddy Doyle)
"Brilliant . . . you'll go on thinking about the characters and the way it's written for weeks" (
Guardian)
"Gripping and unexpected" (
The Times)
"Close to being a perfect novel - brief, tragic, inspiring" (John Carey, Chairman of the International Man Booker 2002)
"A masterpiece of compression. A political history of 1930s Portugal, a love story between a man and his dead wife, a gloriously successful formal experiment, and an irresistible thriller - and it can be read with enormous pleasure in a single afternoon." (Mohsin Hamid)
"Pereira is a marvelously complex creation. One of the most intriguing and appealing character studies in recent European fiction." (
Kirkus Reviews)
"It grips from start to finish....a riveting political allegory" (
Financial Times)
"Tabucchi writes...with an agility of mind and an economy of narrative that pulls the reader along" (
Observer)
"Political but gorgeously artful, sad and then laugh out loud funny, pacy as a thriller ....This book is perfectly executed" (
Dazed and Confused)
"This novel...has been sensitively and intelligently translated revealing this understated masterpiece of love and courage." (
Good Book Guide)
"Concise, intense and striking." (
Daily Telegraph)
"Seemingly plain at first, the story becomes gripping as soon as you realize that the beauty of Tabucchi's narrative lies in between the lines, making the novel a thought-provoking and delightful read." (Maria-Christina Marchi
Time Out)
"A powerfully concise story of heroism versus acquiescence which gains eloquence from its simplicity" (
Sunday Telegraph)
"Tabucchi's book (widely interpreted as a critique of Berlusconi) niggles away at the ambiguous space between aggrieved resistance and passive inaction" (
Guardian)
"In its quiet, brilliant way, this is a novel you will read carefully. It is subtle and powerful; it deserves to be a classic." (
Scotsman)
"A moving intellectual thriller" (
London Magazine)
"subtle and powerful; it deserves to be a classic" (William Leith
The Scotsman)
"gripping" (
Baby & Me)
"A masterpiece . . . Romantic, devastating, thrilling and formally inventive" (Mohsin Hamid
Esquire Magazine) --Guardian
"As engrossing as it is important" (
Times Literary Supplement) --Times Literary Supplement
"Charming and enjoyable. Short, languid and deceptively simple, it builds up an atmospheric portrait of 1930s Portugal, lovingly picking out picturesque scenery . . . It is funny, too" (
Sunday Times) --Sunday Times