George Saunders - Tenth of December

New York Times“Bone-deep understanding of storytelling...” What injects his schematic moral dramas with real vitality is the energy of Saunders’s kinetic prose and his ability to depict his characters from both the outside (with plenty of satirical snarl) and the inside (with some genuine feeling)...

Financial Times“An acute ear for the rythmns of everyday life...” It's lifted by a sustained attack on Rand's ideology of individualism. Each story's about people doing good, or wanting to, often in situations where they'd profit from doing nothing. Saunders' deploys sentimentality as superbly as other modes...

The Telegraph“All heart with none of the posturing...” In the best way, Saunders writes like a riotously imaginative lost talent stuck in an office who, midway through a press release, decides he’s mad and not going to take it anymore. You want to force these tales on everyone for the good of mankind..

Guardian“Deeply moving and consistently weird...” Saunders' work often present powerless characters trapped in a sort of chirpy, totalitarian Disneyland; in so doing they give a more acute sense of what it feels like to live in post-industrial, post-crash western economies than much journalism...

Scotsman“Handled with sensitive and tear-jerking nuance...” It is to Saunders’ immense credit that even within his characters' linguistic prisons, narrative still surprises and disorientates. Escape from Spiderhead is brutal, and the way the language shivers in and out of tones is beautifully crafted...

The Observer“It seems like he's stuck...” While critics often compare him to Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut and the master of deadpan absurdism, Donald Barthelme, an equally apt touchstone might be The Simpsons...

The Herald“There is a left-field pizzazz to much of his work...” I suspect this isn't his best book but there's enough to make me want to read more. If Eggars and Atwood and Frantzen think him Twain, Chekov and Orwell rolled into one, then maybe it's just me...

The Huffington Post“Funny and strange and sad and beautiful...” If I have any criticism it is this: he has a habit of revisiting characters, themes and ideas, which in a collection of just ten stories, feels like a bit of a cheat. Nevertheless, this is an absorbing read...

Publishers Weekly“A cause to celebrate...” Readers expecting zany escapism will be humbled by the pathos on display in stories like "Home" and "Victory Lap." Eventually, a suspicion creeps in that, behind Saunders' comic talents, he might be the most compassionate writer working today...