Austin Clarke

“Austin Clarke not only writes in a voice that is entirely his own, he is also one of the more talented novelists at work in the English language today.…His fiction is unique, surprising, comfortable until the moment when it becomes uncomfortable. Then you realize you have learned something new that you didn’t want to know – and it’s essential knowledge. And so on you go, alternately congratulating and cursing Austin Clarke.”

- Norman Mailer

“Uncommonly talented, Clarke sees deeply, and transmits his visions and perceptions so skillfully that reading him is an adventure.”

- Publisher’s Weekly

“He has forcefully demonstrated that distance can sharpen a writer’s focus and deepen perceptions.”

- Globe and Mail

“Clarke has a matchless ear for dialogue.…He succeeds in making his pages brilliant.”

- Boston Globe

“Clarke the novelist is very much in charge. He never falls into the trap of making his characters vehicles for mouthing this or that political ideology. They are no more or less than the human beings that his literary alchemy brings to life.…”

- Toronto Star

“Clarke is magnificent in transferring to print the music, the poetry, the complete aptness of the West Indian dialogue.…as near poetry as prose can become.”

- Charlotte Observer