An involving historical read and yet another illustration of this author's astonishing range. There seems to be no subject or genre that Boyle won't tackle with brio -- Lionel Shriver Guardian, Books of the Year Boyle tells an extraordinary story of human weakness and survival, with high intelligence and a terrific eye for detail -- Kate Saunders The Times Though I generally shy from flap-copy hyperbole of this sort, T. C. Boyle is by far and away one of the most inventive, adventurous and accomplished fiction writers in the US today ... Most of all, he is a mesmerising storyteller, which is magnificently on display in his latest, San Miguel ... a dense, lushly detailed novel ... marking the exceptionally fine lines in San Miguel would have entailed underscoring the entire text ... this isn't a review, really. It's a love letter -- Lionel Shriver Financial Times A history novel of almost heroic restraint, its prose remains resolutely unflashy, and its tone is sympathetic to the point of genuine warmth ... a touching, even gripping allegory of the doomed nature of human striving -- James Walton Spectator A bareback ride into the abyss -- Tom Cox Observer His evocations of landscape are vivid and he can dream up a cast of characters -- Belinda McKeon Guardian [A] fine new novel ... He is [...] masterful at presenting this enclosed world, and he examines the debilitating effects of isolation on men and women -- Philip Womack Daily Telegraph It's extraordinarily direct, sympathetic and pretty, with Boyle's characteristic aliveness to the past and its telling little details -- Todd McEwen Glasgow Sunday Herald Mesmerising and elegiac ... Boyle skilfully captures that tension-filled quietude in the pared-down, mundane details of cleaning, cooking, caring for livestock and enduring the tedium of unchanging days Scotsman Permeated with an elegiac tone ... Atmospherically it is resonant of The Piano, Jane Campion's passionate novel of pioneering tenacity ... A powerful meditation on the skirmish between character and circumstance in these marginal lives in America's history Independent
