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497 reviews
Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling
Mark Riebling provides the first fully satisfactory portrait of the most elusive and certainly the most divisive pope in modern history. He provides an entirely new, but thoroughly evidence-based explanation [of] the principal enigma in the history of modern Catholicism: its silence on the Shoah.
Sam Harris, Author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation
Mark Riebling’s work on Vatican espionage makes an invaluable contribution [to] the scholarship on the wartime Church.
Michael Burleigh, Author of The Third Reich: A New History
[A] revealing history of Pius’ wartime dealings with the German resistance to Nazi rule … Readers will be surprised at the steady stream of anti-Hitler conspiracies, several of which reached the point where dates were set and bombs assembled.
Military History
Riebling, an expert on secret intelligence, compellingly explores the papacy’s involvement in espionage during World War II … This book has much to surprise, especially the many German officers, separately and together, involved in attempts on Hitler’s life … Pius, vilified by critics who believed he ignored Germany’s atrocities, comes off as a politically savvy man who realized his interference would precipitate Hitler’s mortal overreaction against German Catholics. Not only a dramatic disclosure of the Vatican’s covert actions, but also an absorbing, polished story for all readers of World War II history.
Kirkus
Clandestine organizations are hard to reconstruct and Riebling has mined an impressive array of archival sources to tell this fascinating story.
Library Journal
Mark Riebling takes readers into the seldom-explored mysterious world of Vatican espionage with a deeply researched and fresh account that reads like a spy thriller. The crackling narrative of Church of Spies delivers an important and compelling addition to the debate over the legacy of Pius XII, the most powerful and complex Pope of modern times.
Gerald Posner, Author of God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
While the Pope hesitated to publicly provoke Hitler in foolhardy way, he had no hesitation in secretly opposing the Third Reich and its crimes. The record of the assistance Pius XII provided, through his representatives, to the German resistance, and the actions they took, under his guidance, is extraordinary. Without minimizing the complicity of individual Christians, or the role of Christian anti-Semitism, Mark Riebling shows that the Vatican took a very powerful stance against the Nazis. It is especially important for Jewish people — and I am Jewish myself — that this information is now being gathered for all to see.
Sir Martin Gilbert, Official Biographer of Winston Churchill
This gripping book, the product of extensive and fine-grained historical research, should change the course of the “Pius Wars”, if both critics and defenders of Pius XII take its evidence seriously.
George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
In Church of Spies, Mark Riebling provides a groundbreaking and riveting account of Pope Pius XII’s secret war against Hitler. This richly documented book makes an important contribution to contemporary scholarship about Pius XII and to our understanding of the historical legacy of his pontificate.
Rabbi David Dalin, Author of The Myth of Hitler’s Pope
Church of Spies is an incredible book. It is authentic, documented history that reads like a great action novel. Bonhoeffer, Stauffenberg, the pope, and others plotted to kill Hitler and end the war. Riebling takes us inside their meetings (sometimes held among excavations under Vatican City) and meetings of Hitler and his top advisors. The story that emerges is at times terrifying, tragic, and yet ultimately heroic. This is a book not to be missed.
Ronald J. Rychlak, Author of Hitler, the War and the Pope
Mark Riebling has set himself a high bar in turning conventional wisdom on its head. He has taken on one of the most controversial and polarizing issues in the history of World War II: the role of the wartime Vatican in fighting the Nazis. By combining new archival material with a lively and convincing narrative he has created a new account of a secret war previously overlooked. This is a highly original contribution to intelligence history.
Col. Rose Mary Sheldon, Burgwyn Chair in Military History, Virginia Military Institute
Church of Spies captured my attention. It is a remarkable piece of research. It fills out much of the story that was known mainly in skeletal form. It makes the past come alive.
Vincent A. Lapomarda, Author of The Jesuits and the Third Reich
Riebling shows that the Vatican's wartime campaign against Hitler was far more extensive than previously thought.
Australian Jewish News
[M]eticulously researched …reveals why Hitler fell apart in those dying months of World War II, the day after reading about the Gestapo’s investigation of his assassination attempt.
Joanna McCarthy, Newcastle Herald
This is a very interesting and informative book about the most controversial period in the Church’s recent history … Perhaps the most uplifting message from this book is that, apart from Pius himself, there were many courageous people in Germany and Italy who devoted their lives to try and stop the evil.
George Femia, Manly Daily
An exceptionally important work that skilfully blends human strengths and weaknesses with events that will continue to be argued for centuries to come … This is the most interesting book I have read in more than 10 years of reviewing. Buy it.
David Reed, Wamganui Chronicle
Sam Harris, Author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation
Mark Riebling’s work on Vatican espionage makes an invaluable contribution [to] the scholarship on the wartime Church.
Michael Burleigh, Author of The Third Reich: A New History
[A] revealing history of Pius’ wartime dealings with the German resistance to Nazi rule … Readers will be surprised at the steady stream of anti-Hitler conspiracies, several of which reached the point where dates were set and bombs assembled.
Military History
Riebling, an expert on secret intelligence, compellingly explores the papacy’s involvement in espionage during World War II … This book has much to surprise, especially the many German officers, separately and together, involved in attempts on Hitler’s life … Pius, vilified by critics who believed he ignored Germany’s atrocities, comes off as a politically savvy man who realized his interference would precipitate Hitler’s mortal overreaction against German Catholics. Not only a dramatic disclosure of the Vatican’s covert actions, but also an absorbing, polished story for all readers of World War II history.
Kirkus
Clandestine organizations are hard to reconstruct and Riebling has mined an impressive array of archival sources to tell this fascinating story.
Library Journal
Mark Riebling takes readers into the seldom-explored mysterious world of Vatican espionage with a deeply researched and fresh account that reads like a spy thriller. The crackling narrative of Church of Spies delivers an important and compelling addition to the debate over the legacy of Pius XII, the most powerful and complex Pope of modern times.
Gerald Posner, Author of God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
While the Pope hesitated to publicly provoke Hitler in foolhardy way, he had no hesitation in secretly opposing the Third Reich and its crimes. The record of the assistance Pius XII provided, through his representatives, to the German resistance, and the actions they took, under his guidance, is extraordinary. Without minimizing the complicity of individual Christians, or the role of Christian anti-Semitism, Mark Riebling shows that the Vatican took a very powerful stance against the Nazis. It is especially important for Jewish people — and I am Jewish myself — that this information is now being gathered for all to see.
Sir Martin Gilbert, Official Biographer of Winston Churchill
This gripping book, the product of extensive and fine-grained historical research, should change the course of the “Pius Wars”, if both critics and defenders of Pius XII take its evidence seriously.
George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
In Church of Spies, Mark Riebling provides a groundbreaking and riveting account of Pope Pius XII’s secret war against Hitler. This richly documented book makes an important contribution to contemporary scholarship about Pius XII and to our understanding of the historical legacy of his pontificate.
Rabbi David Dalin, Author of The Myth of Hitler’s Pope
Church of Spies is an incredible book. It is authentic, documented history that reads like a great action novel. Bonhoeffer, Stauffenberg, the pope, and others plotted to kill Hitler and end the war. Riebling takes us inside their meetings (sometimes held among excavations under Vatican City) and meetings of Hitler and his top advisors. The story that emerges is at times terrifying, tragic, and yet ultimately heroic. This is a book not to be missed.
Ronald J. Rychlak, Author of Hitler, the War and the Pope
Mark Riebling has set himself a high bar in turning conventional wisdom on its head. He has taken on one of the most controversial and polarizing issues in the history of World War II: the role of the wartime Vatican in fighting the Nazis. By combining new archival material with a lively and convincing narrative he has created a new account of a secret war previously overlooked. This is a highly original contribution to intelligence history.
Col. Rose Mary Sheldon, Burgwyn Chair in Military History, Virginia Military Institute
Church of Spies captured my attention. It is a remarkable piece of research. It fills out much of the story that was known mainly in skeletal form. It makes the past come alive.
Vincent A. Lapomarda, Author of The Jesuits and the Third Reich
Riebling shows that the Vatican's wartime campaign against Hitler was far more extensive than previously thought.
Australian Jewish News
[M]eticulously researched …reveals why Hitler fell apart in those dying months of World War II, the day after reading about the Gestapo’s investigation of his assassination attempt.
Joanna McCarthy, Newcastle Herald
This is a very interesting and informative book about the most controversial period in the Church’s recent history … Perhaps the most uplifting message from this book is that, apart from Pius himself, there were many courageous people in Germany and Italy who devoted their lives to try and stop the evil.
George Femia, Manly Daily
An exceptionally important work that skilfully blends human strengths and weaknesses with events that will continue to be argued for centuries to come … This is the most interesting book I have read in more than 10 years of reviewing. Buy it.
David Reed, Wamganui Chronicle
Under Cover: Adventures in the Art of Editing by Craig Munro
[The early 70s to the late 90s] was a fascinating time in Australia's cultural history, and Munros account is a warm and engrossing one. If you have the slightest interest in writing and publishing you'll love this book — just as I did.
Mark Rubbo, Readings
[C]ompelling … entertaining … This is compulsive reading for anyone interested in Australian books and culture.
Brad Jeffries, Books+Publishing, Four Stars
Munro takes a delighted relish in stories from the wild west days of Australian letters … [but] behind the anecdotes and great fun, there is another story: that of a brief window in which Australia first developed a local publishing industry, when editors and not literary agents had the closest relationship with their authors, and when governments of the day were willing to make the modest investment that provided those startling returns in books such as Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda, Malouf’s An Imaginary Life and Helen Garner’s The Children’s Bach… [Y]ou can’t help finishing [Under Cover] without mourning, just a little, the time when a nation found its narrative feet. Shining off its pages is a sense of the fun and the sheer delight we once took in telling stories to ourselves and the wider world. We are so much richer now — but though Munro is too polite to say it, poorer too.
George Williamson, The Australian
[A] relaxed, engaging memoir about being the man with the blue pencil, which should open the eyes of people interested in the publishing business and entertain anyone who picks it up … A charming breeze of a book … [Munro] has a born raconteur's ear for anecdote.
Peter Craven, Sunday Age
Reading Under Cover feels like eavesdropping on some of the most fascinating conversations in the history of Australian publishing — how lucky for Craig Munro to have lived it, and how lucky for us that he's chosen to share it.
Fiona McFarlane, Author of The Night Guest
Craig Munro has been a notable catalyst in the fermentation of Australia’s literary culture for over four decades. His book is in particular an enchanting celebration of the rollicking 1970s and 1980s, when Australian writers really hit their straps and dedicated publishing people, like Craig, were their exuberant accomplices.
Richard Walsh, Publisher and Editor
With his formidable forceps, Craig Munro has brought to birth many lusty infants of Australian literature — and this book shows how it's done.
Barry Oakley, Writer and Editor
Under Cover draws you in to an occupation rarely disclosed — indeed, rarely brought to life in the way Munro has. These were the Renaissance years of Australian literature, and Carey is just part of it … The momentous shift to champion black writers was part of a retelling still unfolding, vital to the national identity.
Ellen Vam Neerven, Editor and the Author of Heat and Light
Part memoir, part tribute to a pocket of Australia's publishing history, Under Cover is cheery and illuminating. Munro obviously loves his job “transforming raw manuscript keystrokes into an object of readerly desire” … full of insider anecdotes about the tricky but symbiotic author-editor relationship.
Thuy On, The Big Issue
I have a better sense of myself and this event after having read this book … I hope that people read Under Cover, as Munro is good company and I can see why his writers liked him. I hope aspiring writers read him so that they can understand what an editor his and why you do really truly need one. I know that those who love books about books will enjoy this book, as it is just that. I also hope that those who shared the journey enjoy the memories.
Laura Kroetsch, Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week
This book is an invaluable piece of writing for writers, aspiring (or developed) editors, and those hoping to find their way in the publishing industry. There are so many wonderful quotes and pieces of advice; I devoured Munro's words with a great hunger … Under Cover reveals the importance of knowledge, patience and understanding and the power and potential between author and editor.
The Book Kate
If you’ve always thought that editors lead quiet lives involving nothing more exciting than neatly pencilling corrections on a page, this entertaining and fascinating book will show you how varied and exhilarating the life of an editor can be.
Good Reading
A must-read behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry … Often funny, sometimes shocking and once or twice verging on scandalous … I can't help feeling that with editors like Munro, giving so much passion to their work with authors, book publishing in a paper format has a long history in front of it as well as behind.
Kate Dawes, Salty Popcorn
Most of the Australian writers you have ever heard of and quite a few beside are in the pages of Craig Munro’s freewheeling memoir Under Cover… It’s one of the pleasures of Under Cover that we are inducted into unknown territories of book editing. And, too, plenty of literary gossip.
Nick Goldie, Cooma-Monaro Express
With a wit as keen as his editorial eye, Munro weaves history, memoir and anecdote in a masterful manner — a testament to his extensive knowledge of the Australian publishing industry, and his prowess with the written word. Despite his intimidating editing credentials, Munro cites his own editor, Julia Carlomagno, as a catalyst in achieving the compelling structure and readability of Under Cover.
Kate Bethune, The West End Magazine
A clear-eyed, engaging memoir offering a unique perspective on the passionate and occasionally unhinged world of Australian literature.
Jacqueline Kent, Editor and The Author of A Certain Style: Beatrice David — A Literary Life
There is little doubt in my mind that Munro was instrumental in guiding literary taste in Australia for over a quarter of a century.
ANZ LitLovers
[The] appearance of an energetic local publishing scene in the 1970s (UQP was an early significant player but only one) was more than an exercise in naive ‘‘us-too’’-ism. Publishing Australian stories in all their diversity aided the development of an inclusive, multicultural and Indigenously aware Australian identity. Taking cues from the zeitgeist, independent publishing houses certainly needed editors who believed they were engaged in a shared cultural adventure, and Craig Munro was definitely one of those. I happily thank him for that commitment, and for this book.
Angelo Loukakis, Sydney Morning Herald
It was such a pleasure to be reminded of the generous spirit which fuelled Australian independent publishing in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s … But best of all, Craig Munro understands and writes about what lies at the heart of good publishing and editing: relationships.
Sophie Cunningham, Writer and Publisher
Mark Rubbo, Readings
[C]ompelling … entertaining … This is compulsive reading for anyone interested in Australian books and culture.
Brad Jeffries, Books+Publishing, Four Stars
Munro takes a delighted relish in stories from the wild west days of Australian letters … [but] behind the anecdotes and great fun, there is another story: that of a brief window in which Australia first developed a local publishing industry, when editors and not literary agents had the closest relationship with their authors, and when governments of the day were willing to make the modest investment that provided those startling returns in books such as Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda, Malouf’s An Imaginary Life and Helen Garner’s The Children’s Bach… [Y]ou can’t help finishing [Under Cover] without mourning, just a little, the time when a nation found its narrative feet. Shining off its pages is a sense of the fun and the sheer delight we once took in telling stories to ourselves and the wider world. We are so much richer now — but though Munro is too polite to say it, poorer too.
George Williamson, The Australian
[A] relaxed, engaging memoir about being the man with the blue pencil, which should open the eyes of people interested in the publishing business and entertain anyone who picks it up … A charming breeze of a book … [Munro] has a born raconteur's ear for anecdote.
Peter Craven, Sunday Age
Reading Under Cover feels like eavesdropping on some of the most fascinating conversations in the history of Australian publishing — how lucky for Craig Munro to have lived it, and how lucky for us that he's chosen to share it.
Fiona McFarlane, Author of The Night Guest
Craig Munro has been a notable catalyst in the fermentation of Australia’s literary culture for over four decades. His book is in particular an enchanting celebration of the rollicking 1970s and 1980s, when Australian writers really hit their straps and dedicated publishing people, like Craig, were their exuberant accomplices.
Richard Walsh, Publisher and Editor
With his formidable forceps, Craig Munro has brought to birth many lusty infants of Australian literature — and this book shows how it's done.
Barry Oakley, Writer and Editor
Under Cover draws you in to an occupation rarely disclosed — indeed, rarely brought to life in the way Munro has. These were the Renaissance years of Australian literature, and Carey is just part of it … The momentous shift to champion black writers was part of a retelling still unfolding, vital to the national identity.
Ellen Vam Neerven, Editor and the Author of Heat and Light
Part memoir, part tribute to a pocket of Australia's publishing history, Under Cover is cheery and illuminating. Munro obviously loves his job “transforming raw manuscript keystrokes into an object of readerly desire” … full of insider anecdotes about the tricky but symbiotic author-editor relationship.
Thuy On, The Big Issue
I have a better sense of myself and this event after having read this book … I hope that people read Under Cover, as Munro is good company and I can see why his writers liked him. I hope aspiring writers read him so that they can understand what an editor his and why you do really truly need one. I know that those who love books about books will enjoy this book, as it is just that. I also hope that those who shared the journey enjoy the memories.
Laura Kroetsch, Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week
This book is an invaluable piece of writing for writers, aspiring (or developed) editors, and those hoping to find their way in the publishing industry. There are so many wonderful quotes and pieces of advice; I devoured Munro's words with a great hunger … Under Cover reveals the importance of knowledge, patience and understanding and the power and potential between author and editor.
The Book Kate
If you’ve always thought that editors lead quiet lives involving nothing more exciting than neatly pencilling corrections on a page, this entertaining and fascinating book will show you how varied and exhilarating the life of an editor can be.
Good Reading
A must-read behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry … Often funny, sometimes shocking and once or twice verging on scandalous … I can't help feeling that with editors like Munro, giving so much passion to their work with authors, book publishing in a paper format has a long history in front of it as well as behind.
Kate Dawes, Salty Popcorn
Most of the Australian writers you have ever heard of and quite a few beside are in the pages of Craig Munro’s freewheeling memoir Under Cover… It’s one of the pleasures of Under Cover that we are inducted into unknown territories of book editing. And, too, plenty of literary gossip.
Nick Goldie, Cooma-Monaro Express
With a wit as keen as his editorial eye, Munro weaves history, memoir and anecdote in a masterful manner — a testament to his extensive knowledge of the Australian publishing industry, and his prowess with the written word. Despite his intimidating editing credentials, Munro cites his own editor, Julia Carlomagno, as a catalyst in achieving the compelling structure and readability of Under Cover.
Kate Bethune, The West End Magazine
A clear-eyed, engaging memoir offering a unique perspective on the passionate and occasionally unhinged world of Australian literature.
Jacqueline Kent, Editor and The Author of A Certain Style: Beatrice David — A Literary Life
There is little doubt in my mind that Munro was instrumental in guiding literary taste in Australia for over a quarter of a century.
ANZ LitLovers
[The] appearance of an energetic local publishing scene in the 1970s (UQP was an early significant player but only one) was more than an exercise in naive ‘‘us-too’’-ism. Publishing Australian stories in all their diversity aided the development of an inclusive, multicultural and Indigenously aware Australian identity. Taking cues from the zeitgeist, independent publishing houses certainly needed editors who believed they were engaged in a shared cultural adventure, and Craig Munro was definitely one of those. I happily thank him for that commitment, and for this book.
Angelo Loukakis, Sydney Morning Herald
It was such a pleasure to be reminded of the generous spirit which fuelled Australian independent publishing in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s … But best of all, Craig Munro understands and writes about what lies at the heart of good publishing and editing: relationships.
Sophie Cunningham, Writer and Publisher
Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila
This ambitious fugue from Congolese writer Fiston Mwanza Mujila delves into an African nation riven by civil war, disease, poverty, and endemic corruption … It’s bustling, strange experimental fiction in which the chaos of daily life leaks like blood from the iron fist of violence and profit.
Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald
[E]xuberant … Mujila, a playwright and a poet, has produced a formally engaging book that mimics both the structures of jazz and the sense of overhearing conversation in a bar … The whole book is charged with snarled, involving language; you always feel you're hunting for thoughtful treasures.
The Saturday Paper
The writing, which has all the edgy darkness of the best street lit, sometimes mimics the bar’s background jazz in its syncopation and the occasional quick-burst, broken-sentence, run-on format, with the bar regulars feeling like a Greek chorus. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mujila has turned out a multiaward-winning debut that’s decidedly cool and juicy.
Library Journal
The writing has the pulsing, staccato rhythms of Beat poetry … Tram 83 is an antidote to the gloomy nature of most African novels. It doesn’t glamorize the ugliness, yet it’s alive to the thrill and abandonment of living for the moment and “satisfying the pleasures of the underbelly.”
Wall Street Journal
One of the most exciting discoveries of the rentrée … There is some Hieronymus Bosch in this frenetic, flamboyant, closed-door city slicker. An insolent, globe-trotting Hieronymus Bosch, one who would have read Gabriel García Márquez and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Le Monde
A formidable demonstration of the power of literature.
Télérama
A hallucinating and hallucinogenic Congolese fresco where everything is about music. An incandescent novel.
France Inter
A novel of a mind-blowing and poetic beauty.
Point Magazine
A debut novel with a vertiginous rhythm. Picaresque poetry turned into music by a mix of slam and a series of loops and turns as bewitching as a sustained jazz melody.
Sean James Rose, Livres Hebdo
At 33, Fiston Mwanza Mujila pens a very promising first novel.
Jeune Afrique
A real discovery among the novels of the rentrée. Not to be missed.
Alain Mabanckou, Jeune Afrique
The style is really quite something, a rich, rhythmic language, hallucinogenic and dreamlike in places. A feast!
Translator Roland Glasser
Invigorating and narcotic, Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s writing multiplies the language creativity by polishing a painting of an imaginary Africa.
Muriel Mingau, Le Populaire du Centre
Tram 83 is a high-speed journey, a tragic, burlesque, melancholic and melodic story.
Christine Ferniot, Lire
Tram 83 is a rhapsody. A crazy saxophone solo rising silently with the echo of the chorus.
Emile Rabaté, Libération
Attention, comet! We dive into this Tram 83 like we dive into a piece by Coltrane, of which we never come out of.
Laurent Bosque, Rolling Stone
Fiston Mwanza invents the “locomotion-literature”, the “theatre-story” genre, and turns his debut novel into a manifest for convulsive poetic prose, half-way between Aimé Césaire and Boris Vian.
Chloé Thibaud, Le Nouvel Observateur
Here’s a debut novel that anticipates a promising literary career.
Caya Makhélé, Notre Afrik
From Graz, in Austria, where he lives, the Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila reinvents in his first novel the joyful and terrible brothels of his home country.
Muriel Steinmetz, L’Humanité
Tram 83 is part Satantango, part Fitzcarraldo, and part Blood Meridian. A dark, funny, and true accomplishment.
Chad Felix, Word Bookstores
Tram 83 isn’t for the faint of heart, but rather, it’s for those that have a sense of humor, an interest in seedy underbellies, and a willingness to, at times, feel a little lost in the haze of biblical imagery, flippant debauchery, free sex, and anarchy. Ezra Pound would be proud; Mujila “made it new”.
Josh Cook, Foreword Reviews
Talk about verve — and vivre: Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83 introduces a rousing, remarkable new voice to this world, surely in its original French, most definitely in Roland Glasser’s superb translation. This book has drive and force and movement, it has hops and chops. It has voices!
Rick Simonson, Elliot Bay Book Company
I was totally into the wild formal thug-haunted adventurousness of Tram 83.
Forrest Gander, Author of The Trace
Blade Runner in Africa with a John Coltrane soundtrack.
Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore
Through observation and conversation, the reader is exposed to the economic boom and cultural bust of contemporary Africa in search of what the future holds for human relationships and survival in a place where tradition and personal histories are quickly being swept under the rug by global forces. Mujila captures chaos in a hypnotic free-jazz rhythm that is so rarely found in novels of this scope.
Kevin Elliott, 57th Street Books
Tram 83 reads like a modern, twisted The Great Gatsby… An unaffected view of humanity that is at once repulsive, hilarious, and oddly uplifting … The novel, like the nightclub, is eccentric and somewhat disturbing, yet inclusive and universally appealing.
Caitlin Thomas, Three Percent
Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald
[E]xuberant … Mujila, a playwright and a poet, has produced a formally engaging book that mimics both the structures of jazz and the sense of overhearing conversation in a bar … The whole book is charged with snarled, involving language; you always feel you're hunting for thoughtful treasures.
The Saturday Paper
The writing, which has all the edgy darkness of the best street lit, sometimes mimics the bar’s background jazz in its syncopation and the occasional quick-burst, broken-sentence, run-on format, with the bar regulars feeling like a Greek chorus. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mujila has turned out a multiaward-winning debut that’s decidedly cool and juicy.
Library Journal
The writing has the pulsing, staccato rhythms of Beat poetry … Tram 83 is an antidote to the gloomy nature of most African novels. It doesn’t glamorize the ugliness, yet it’s alive to the thrill and abandonment of living for the moment and “satisfying the pleasures of the underbelly.”
Wall Street Journal
One of the most exciting discoveries of the rentrée … There is some Hieronymus Bosch in this frenetic, flamboyant, closed-door city slicker. An insolent, globe-trotting Hieronymus Bosch, one who would have read Gabriel García Márquez and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Le Monde
A formidable demonstration of the power of literature.
Télérama
A hallucinating and hallucinogenic Congolese fresco where everything is about music. An incandescent novel.
France Inter
A novel of a mind-blowing and poetic beauty.
Point Magazine
A debut novel with a vertiginous rhythm. Picaresque poetry turned into music by a mix of slam and a series of loops and turns as bewitching as a sustained jazz melody.
Sean James Rose, Livres Hebdo
At 33, Fiston Mwanza Mujila pens a very promising first novel.
Jeune Afrique
A real discovery among the novels of the rentrée. Not to be missed.
Alain Mabanckou, Jeune Afrique
The style is really quite something, a rich, rhythmic language, hallucinogenic and dreamlike in places. A feast!
Translator Roland Glasser
Invigorating and narcotic, Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s writing multiplies the language creativity by polishing a painting of an imaginary Africa.
Muriel Mingau, Le Populaire du Centre
Tram 83 is a high-speed journey, a tragic, burlesque, melancholic and melodic story.
Christine Ferniot, Lire
Tram 83 is a rhapsody. A crazy saxophone solo rising silently with the echo of the chorus.
Emile Rabaté, Libération
Attention, comet! We dive into this Tram 83 like we dive into a piece by Coltrane, of which we never come out of.
Laurent Bosque, Rolling Stone
Fiston Mwanza invents the “locomotion-literature”, the “theatre-story” genre, and turns his debut novel into a manifest for convulsive poetic prose, half-way between Aimé Césaire and Boris Vian.
Chloé Thibaud, Le Nouvel Observateur
Here’s a debut novel that anticipates a promising literary career.
Caya Makhélé, Notre Afrik
From Graz, in Austria, where he lives, the Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila reinvents in his first novel the joyful and terrible brothels of his home country.
Muriel Steinmetz, L’Humanité
Tram 83 is part Satantango, part Fitzcarraldo, and part Blood Meridian. A dark, funny, and true accomplishment.
Chad Felix, Word Bookstores
Tram 83 isn’t for the faint of heart, but rather, it’s for those that have a sense of humor, an interest in seedy underbellies, and a willingness to, at times, feel a little lost in the haze of biblical imagery, flippant debauchery, free sex, and anarchy. Ezra Pound would be proud; Mujila “made it new”.
Josh Cook, Foreword Reviews
Talk about verve — and vivre: Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83 introduces a rousing, remarkable new voice to this world, surely in its original French, most definitely in Roland Glasser’s superb translation. This book has drive and force and movement, it has hops and chops. It has voices!
Rick Simonson, Elliot Bay Book Company
I was totally into the wild formal thug-haunted adventurousness of Tram 83.
Forrest Gander, Author of The Trace
Blade Runner in Africa with a John Coltrane soundtrack.
Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore
Through observation and conversation, the reader is exposed to the economic boom and cultural bust of contemporary Africa in search of what the future holds for human relationships and survival in a place where tradition and personal histories are quickly being swept under the rug by global forces. Mujila captures chaos in a hypnotic free-jazz rhythm that is so rarely found in novels of this scope.
Kevin Elliott, 57th Street Books
Tram 83 reads like a modern, twisted The Great Gatsby… An unaffected view of humanity that is at once repulsive, hilarious, and oddly uplifting … The novel, like the nightclub, is eccentric and somewhat disturbing, yet inclusive and universally appealing.
Caitlin Thomas, Three Percent
Fever of Animals by Miles Allinson
It’s thrilling to read writing like this. Panels of visual perfection strung throughout give sustained lapidary brilliance … There’s a lot of learned conversation about art and art history … [and] some tender and anguished inquiries about whom we love and why … Underneath all of this is the eternal question about how to be authentically yourself in the world … [A]n extravagantly good novel. Not only does it have assurance and authority, it is made with that remarkable magical force of authenticity.
Helen Elliott, Saturday Age
A “voice-driven” narrative par excellence, at the heart of which is a sensually evoked life … Allinson's distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief, and what it means to be an artist with integrity.
Jude Cook, Literary Review
[An] exceptional first novel … full of art and ideas, and yet so intimate that it feels like a conversation with a dear, intelligent friend … masterful in its treatment of time and memory, and filled with such clarifying moments of observation and insight that it is heartbreaking to reach the final page. This is an exquisite, painterly novel, and Allinson is a writer destined for a cult following.
Emily Bitto, Stella Prize-Winning Author of The Strays
As this fever-dream of a novel veers between the quotidian and the nightmarish, it asks vital and difficult questions about the role of art, politics, madness, identity and intimacy … [a] deeply impressive debut.
Veronica Sullivan, Books+Publishing, Five Stars
[A] cerebral novel, passionately invested in the intellectual and cultural value of artistic production … From Balaclava and St Kilda to London, Berlin, Venice and Bucharest, Allinson’s novel ranges far and wide, anchored by the all-encompassing interiority of its unsettled protagonist’s first person narrative … Disparate timeframes, geographically distant locations and even different textual modes are seamlessly woven together, inviting the reader to reflect on the different ways a novel can take form — and indeed, the different forms a novel can take … [Fever of Animals] moves effortlessly between the streets of Fitzroy or London and a world of haunted Romanian forests and fevered dreams.
Sophia Barnes, Sydney Review of Books
Allinson is unashamedly a serious writer, in the mould of dark luminaries like Roberto Bolaño, Thomas Bernhard, Robert Walser, and perhaps W.G. Sebald … Fever of Animals takes itself seriously, like good art should do … and it takes you seriously. All it asks is that you take it seriously back, and to do so is pleasurable and challenging and nourishingly sad.
Sam Cooney, Readings Monthly
Heartfelt, darkly comic, and nothing short of extraordinary. Allinson’s novel is a rarity — fearless, finely judged and alive with mystery.
Andrew Croome, Author of Midnight Express and Document Z
[Allinson] has a distinctive and rare authorial voice, one that is alive with wit, intelligence, and energy … An outstanding new talent.
Toni Jordan
This is the book on everyone's lips right now … Offbeat and superbly written.
Tessa Connelly, Canberra Weekly
Weird, audacious, paradoxical and strange … Fever of Animals consistently invites us to question its claims to authenticity: what exactly is the difference between great fiction and a tremendously compelling lie, a hoax? … [A] fruitful collaboration of the critic and the fiction writer … full of bizarre, uncalculatedly stunning moments … somewhere at the intersection of lying and lyric.
Joshua Barnes, The Newtown Review of Books
The play between truth and fiction, between the writing self and the self written, is one of the great pleasures of Fever of Animals … audacious, clever, and original.
Catriona Menzies-Pike, Australian Book Review
[A] moody, multilayered character study … from an author who is also an artist … Each moment of personal revelation is buttressed by beautifully crafted descriptions of art. Two pages are spent lovingly viewing a Caravaggio in a hot, hostile Naples, while Miles remains oblivious to his disintegrating world … At its best, Fever is a Nabokovian portrait of the artist as a broken man.
The Saturday Paper
Allinson’s novel has a dreamlike quality … Random memories float to the surface at unexpected moments. The narrator’s perspective seems hazy, clouded as it is by grief, longing and a gnawing personal disappointment … [The book] demonstrates a devastating knack for conveying the nuances of bereavement … [E]rudite and intriguing.
Weekend Australian
Despite the studied diffidence of much of its prose, this is a tightly wound and self-referential novel … abundant with references to literature and fine art … Allinson is especially good at the space that solitude allows for the hollow accounting of self-perception.
James Tierney, Kill Your Darlings
A fresh, innovative tale … Conundrums abound as the ambiguity of the author-like protagonist and his heartbreak intersects with the surrealist’s obscurity and unsolved disappearance.
Sunday Star Times
Allinson’s distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief and what it means to be an artist with integrity.
Jude Cook, Literary Review
Helen Elliott, Saturday Age
A “voice-driven” narrative par excellence, at the heart of which is a sensually evoked life … Allinson's distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief, and what it means to be an artist with integrity.
Jude Cook, Literary Review
[An] exceptional first novel … full of art and ideas, and yet so intimate that it feels like a conversation with a dear, intelligent friend … masterful in its treatment of time and memory, and filled with such clarifying moments of observation and insight that it is heartbreaking to reach the final page. This is an exquisite, painterly novel, and Allinson is a writer destined for a cult following.
Emily Bitto, Stella Prize-Winning Author of The Strays
As this fever-dream of a novel veers between the quotidian and the nightmarish, it asks vital and difficult questions about the role of art, politics, madness, identity and intimacy … [a] deeply impressive debut.
Veronica Sullivan, Books+Publishing, Five Stars
[A] cerebral novel, passionately invested in the intellectual and cultural value of artistic production … From Balaclava and St Kilda to London, Berlin, Venice and Bucharest, Allinson’s novel ranges far and wide, anchored by the all-encompassing interiority of its unsettled protagonist’s first person narrative … Disparate timeframes, geographically distant locations and even different textual modes are seamlessly woven together, inviting the reader to reflect on the different ways a novel can take form — and indeed, the different forms a novel can take … [Fever of Animals] moves effortlessly between the streets of Fitzroy or London and a world of haunted Romanian forests and fevered dreams.
Sophia Barnes, Sydney Review of Books
Allinson is unashamedly a serious writer, in the mould of dark luminaries like Roberto Bolaño, Thomas Bernhard, Robert Walser, and perhaps W.G. Sebald … Fever of Animals takes itself seriously, like good art should do … and it takes you seriously. All it asks is that you take it seriously back, and to do so is pleasurable and challenging and nourishingly sad.
Sam Cooney, Readings Monthly
Heartfelt, darkly comic, and nothing short of extraordinary. Allinson’s novel is a rarity — fearless, finely judged and alive with mystery.
Andrew Croome, Author of Midnight Express and Document Z
[Allinson] has a distinctive and rare authorial voice, one that is alive with wit, intelligence, and energy … An outstanding new talent.
Toni Jordan
This is the book on everyone's lips right now … Offbeat and superbly written.
Tessa Connelly, Canberra Weekly
Weird, audacious, paradoxical and strange … Fever of Animals consistently invites us to question its claims to authenticity: what exactly is the difference between great fiction and a tremendously compelling lie, a hoax? … [A] fruitful collaboration of the critic and the fiction writer … full of bizarre, uncalculatedly stunning moments … somewhere at the intersection of lying and lyric.
Joshua Barnes, The Newtown Review of Books
The play between truth and fiction, between the writing self and the self written, is one of the great pleasures of Fever of Animals … audacious, clever, and original.
Catriona Menzies-Pike, Australian Book Review
[A] moody, multilayered character study … from an author who is also an artist … Each moment of personal revelation is buttressed by beautifully crafted descriptions of art. Two pages are spent lovingly viewing a Caravaggio in a hot, hostile Naples, while Miles remains oblivious to his disintegrating world … At its best, Fever is a Nabokovian portrait of the artist as a broken man.
The Saturday Paper
Allinson’s novel has a dreamlike quality … Random memories float to the surface at unexpected moments. The narrator’s perspective seems hazy, clouded as it is by grief, longing and a gnawing personal disappointment … [The book] demonstrates a devastating knack for conveying the nuances of bereavement … [E]rudite and intriguing.
Weekend Australian
Despite the studied diffidence of much of its prose, this is a tightly wound and self-referential novel … abundant with references to literature and fine art … Allinson is especially good at the space that solitude allows for the hollow accounting of self-perception.
James Tierney, Kill Your Darlings
A fresh, innovative tale … Conundrums abound as the ambiguity of the author-like protagonist and his heartbreak intersects with the surrealist’s obscurity and unsolved disappearance.
Sunday Star Times
Allinson’s distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief and what it means to be an artist with integrity.
Jude Cook, Literary Review
The Energy-Freedom Home: How to Wipe out Electricity and Gas Bills in Nine Steps by Beyond Zero Emissions
According to BZE, the average Australian household spends some $2400 a year on gas and electricity bills. The book explains the steps which can be taken, in any order, to reduce energy bills to almost zero … Very thorough.
Nick Goldie, Cooma-Monaro Express
Nick Goldie, Cooma-Monaro Express
The American by Nadia Dalbuono
A rollercoaster ride … Unsettling but compelling.
The Sun
[P]its the little guy against the global forces that shaped the late twentieth and early twenty first century behind the scenes … a taut, well constructed thriller.
PS News
The Sun
[P]its the little guy against the global forces that shaped the late twentieth and early twenty first century behind the scenes … a taut, well constructed thriller.
PS News
Please Don't Leave Me Here by Tania Chandler
A remarkable debut. Stylish, assured writing and a compelling, totally believable protagonist. Ms Chandler makes us believe in Brigitte even as we wonder whether to believe her.
Graeme Simsion, Author of The Rosie Project
[F]irst-time author Chandler proves chillingly good at powerlessness, despair, and the unreasonable batterings of fate.
Katharine England, Adelaide Advertiser
[C]omplicated but intriguing … Chandler ensures twists and turns until then end.
Weekly Times
Graeme Simsion, Author of The Rosie Project
[F]irst-time author Chandler proves chillingly good at powerlessness, despair, and the unreasonable batterings of fate.
Katharine England, Adelaide Advertiser
[C]omplicated but intriguing … Chandler ensures twists and turns until then end.
Weekly Times
The Naked Surgeon: The Power and Peril of Transparency in Medicine by Samer Nashef
Sam Nashef's brief and absorbing account of the development of safer outcomes in cardiac surgery is a valuable insight into the mindset of all surgeons. The book places in context important episodes in the development of cardiac surgery and describes the process of driving down mortality rates within a specialty that was initially very dangerous but has now become very safe.‘This book is a must read for all surgeons at any stage in their careers but more importantly the book should be mandatory reading for those that would try to understand the inner workings of the surgical mind. Here I would include particularly anaesthetists, operating theatre staff, surgical nurses, surgical managers and all surgical patients past, present and future.
Steve Bolsin
A superb book for anyone who wants to understand the challenges and complexities of transparency and accountability in the NHS. Told through the eyes and is of a heart surgeon, it's gripping, honest and numerate — an essential companion in our journey from blind trust in doctors to kind truth. The Naked Surgeon is both is a very important and timely book. Heart surgeon Samer Nashef takes us on a gripping journey from blind trust in surgeons to kind truth. His writing is engagingly honest and numerate, and he is unashamedly open about the risks, benefits and past disasters of his profession, and the importance of focusing on outcomes and knowing where you're heading. Secrecy and cover-up have done huge damage to patients, professionals and the NHS, but the new march to absolute transparency must also be handled with care. Statistics are always simplifications, further distorted in the media, and there is a delicate balance to be had in holding professionals to account and scaring them away from innovation and operating on those who are at highest risk and have most to gain. This book will be vital to anyone who has to weigh up the pros and cons of surgery. And that's most of us, at some stage.
Dr Phil Hammond
[The Naked Surgeon] takes a Malcolm Gladwell-esque look at what happens in operating theatres … If a book-length examination of the topic sounds dry, it isn’t. Nashef’s humanity and compassion shine through.
The Times
One can't help but think of Henry Marsh when reading Samer Nashef … Nashef does a fine job of guiding the reader though the surgical and statistical intricacies and he writes clearly, with plentiful moments of humour.
Peter Forbes, The Independent
Bold, brilliant … [The Naked Surgeon explains] why risk-adjusted surgical outcomes, and similar assessment in all specialities, are so important. And it details the many traps that the well-meaning can walk into when compiling or comparing data. Nashef’s writing is lucid, free of medical jargon and, unlike many academic books, it is not dry, being strewn with anecdotes and jokes … An essential book for anyone contemplating surgery, medical treatment, or a career in medicine.
Leyla Sanai, Independent on Sunday
UK consultant cardiac surgeon Samer Nashef joins the swelling ranks of medics who have penned frank inside stories. Piquant detail abounds … but it is Nashef’s long study of risk that injects nuance. It began in 1977, when he discovered that arterial surgeons were responsible for the worst outcomes in a sample of abdominal aortic aneurysm operations. Such failures have, he shows, driven quality measurement in medicine, including his own heart-surgery risk model, EuroSCORE.
Barbara Kiser, Nature
[The Naked Surgeon] takes a scalpel to the medical profession and asks if patients get the standard of care they have the right to expect from their surgeons … A valuable resource.
Freddie Wood, Irish Independent
A readable and generous book.
Kitty Wheater, Irish Examiner
Steve Bolsin
A superb book for anyone who wants to understand the challenges and complexities of transparency and accountability in the NHS. Told through the eyes and is of a heart surgeon, it's gripping, honest and numerate — an essential companion in our journey from blind trust in doctors to kind truth. The Naked Surgeon is both is a very important and timely book. Heart surgeon Samer Nashef takes us on a gripping journey from blind trust in surgeons to kind truth. His writing is engagingly honest and numerate, and he is unashamedly open about the risks, benefits and past disasters of his profession, and the importance of focusing on outcomes and knowing where you're heading. Secrecy and cover-up have done huge damage to patients, professionals and the NHS, but the new march to absolute transparency must also be handled with care. Statistics are always simplifications, further distorted in the media, and there is a delicate balance to be had in holding professionals to account and scaring them away from innovation and operating on those who are at highest risk and have most to gain. This book will be vital to anyone who has to weigh up the pros and cons of surgery. And that's most of us, at some stage.
Dr Phil Hammond
[The Naked Surgeon] takes a Malcolm Gladwell-esque look at what happens in operating theatres … If a book-length examination of the topic sounds dry, it isn’t. Nashef’s humanity and compassion shine through.
The Times
One can't help but think of Henry Marsh when reading Samer Nashef … Nashef does a fine job of guiding the reader though the surgical and statistical intricacies and he writes clearly, with plentiful moments of humour.
Peter Forbes, The Independent
Bold, brilliant … [The Naked Surgeon explains] why risk-adjusted surgical outcomes, and similar assessment in all specialities, are so important. And it details the many traps that the well-meaning can walk into when compiling or comparing data. Nashef’s writing is lucid, free of medical jargon and, unlike many academic books, it is not dry, being strewn with anecdotes and jokes … An essential book for anyone contemplating surgery, medical treatment, or a career in medicine.
Leyla Sanai, Independent on Sunday
UK consultant cardiac surgeon Samer Nashef joins the swelling ranks of medics who have penned frank inside stories. Piquant detail abounds … but it is Nashef’s long study of risk that injects nuance. It began in 1977, when he discovered that arterial surgeons were responsible for the worst outcomes in a sample of abdominal aortic aneurysm operations. Such failures have, he shows, driven quality measurement in medicine, including his own heart-surgery risk model, EuroSCORE.
Barbara Kiser, Nature
[The Naked Surgeon] takes a scalpel to the medical profession and asks if patients get the standard of care they have the right to expect from their surgeons … A valuable resource.
Freddie Wood, Irish Independent
A readable and generous book.
Kitty Wheater, Irish Examiner
The Map of Chaos by Félix J. Palma
Inventive fun
Yvonne Zipp, The Washington Post
The unreal becomes real, fantasy becomes history, and the reader is thoroughly entertained by an unending parade of bafflements and surprises. This book is a complete delight.
K.W. Jeter, Author of Infernal Devices
Palma’s yarn is altogether a satisfying, thoroughly entertaining creature feature.
Kirkus
Map of Chaos is a vividly drawn odyssey spanning time and space that calls on three of the literary greats of the past century to answer the fundamental question of our place in the universe and to demonstrate the enduring power of undying love.
Jack Dubrul
Spanish novelist Félix J. Palma outdoes himself in The Map of Chaos, the third instalment in a fantasy trilogy that features writers H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle as action heroes … Bookworms are always searching for new realms in which to lose themselves. With this trilogy, Palma offers an homage and multiple new worlds to explore.
The Seattle Times
Yvonne Zipp, The Washington Post
The unreal becomes real, fantasy becomes history, and the reader is thoroughly entertained by an unending parade of bafflements and surprises. This book is a complete delight.
K.W. Jeter, Author of Infernal Devices
Palma’s yarn is altogether a satisfying, thoroughly entertaining creature feature.
Kirkus
Map of Chaos is a vividly drawn odyssey spanning time and space that calls on three of the literary greats of the past century to answer the fundamental question of our place in the universe and to demonstrate the enduring power of undying love.
Jack Dubrul
Spanish novelist Félix J. Palma outdoes himself in The Map of Chaos, the third instalment in a fantasy trilogy that features writers H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle as action heroes … Bookworms are always searching for new realms in which to lose themselves. With this trilogy, Palma offers an homage and multiple new worlds to explore.
The Seattle Times
The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease by Marc Lewis
A courageous and much needed voice in rethinking addiction — Lewis takes addiction out of a disease model and reframes it as a negative outcome of neuroplasticity. This model provides realistic hope, given that what has been learnt can be unlearnt by harnessing the principles of neuroplasticity. Through his intimate personal and professional knowledge of addiction, Lewis reframes our understanding of its mechanisms and nature in a way that is empowering.
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, Author of the international bestseller The Woman Who Changed Her Brain
Clear, insightful, and necessary.
Johann Hari, Author of Chasing the Scream
Marc Lewis provides a wonderful mix of biography, psychology, and neuroscience to explain desire and addiction in a new way. It will stimulate thinking about our approaches to addiction and desire. His writing is accessible, personal, and captivating.
David Roland, Author of How I Rescued My Brain
This is the real story of “this is your brain on drugs”, but one that provides a refreshing, convincing alternative to the widespread traditional disease-model view of addiction. Through compelling stories of real people who struggled with various addictions, Lewis lucidly makes the case for a new science-based understanding of what causes and sustains addiction. Most important, it offers far more positivity about ways out of addiction than those offered by traditional treatment, providing hope for those struggling as well as for their loved ones.
Anne M. Fletcher, MS, RD, Author of Sober for Good and Inside Rehab
Informed by unparalleled neuroscientific insight and written with his usual flare, Marc Lewis’s The Biology of Desire effectively refutes the medical view of addiction as a primary brain disease. A bracing and informative rebuke of the muddle that now characterizes public and professional discourse on this topic.
Dr. Gabor Maté, MD, Author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addication
Highly readable and plausible illustration of current ideas about addiction from behavioural neuroscience and clinical perspectives by the use of vivid case histories.
Trevor Robbins, Head of Psychology Department, Cambridge University
Marc Lewis’s new book neatly links current thinking about addiction with neuroscience theory and artfully selected biographies. Ex-addicts, we learn, are not “cured”, rather they have become more connected to others, wiser, and more in touch with their own humanity. This is a hopeful message that has, as Lewis demonstrates, the advantage of also being true.
Gene Heyman, Author of Addiction: Disorder of Choice
Whether you are looking for a foundation in the neuroscience of addiction, guidelines for recovery or just hope that recovery is possible, it’s all here. The scientific information is presented in the context of day-to-day behavior and the lives of individuals you will come to care about. You’ll learn more about neuroscience (and human development and psychology) than you may have thought possible. Informed by this book, you’ll see how neuroscience explains addiction as a part of life, rather than a mysterious entity only experts can understand.
Tom Horvath, President of Practical Recovery and Smart Recovery, and Author of Sex, Drugs, Gambling & Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions
[L]ooks at how addiction and brain science collide, and how understanding our brains can help addicts get out of the abyss … [A] very readable, often touching, gateway into the universe of neuroscience and the shadowland of addiction.
Richard Ferguson, Sydney Morning Herald
[The book's] success lies in its ability to communicate complex ideas in a way that will engage you and move you and sometimes make you laugh … a very readable, often touching, gateway into the universe of neuroscience and the shadowland of addiction.
Esperance Express
The most important study of addiction to be published for many years.
The Spectator
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, Author of the international bestseller The Woman Who Changed Her Brain
Clear, insightful, and necessary.
Johann Hari, Author of Chasing the Scream
Marc Lewis provides a wonderful mix of biography, psychology, and neuroscience to explain desire and addiction in a new way. It will stimulate thinking about our approaches to addiction and desire. His writing is accessible, personal, and captivating.
David Roland, Author of How I Rescued My Brain
This is the real story of “this is your brain on drugs”, but one that provides a refreshing, convincing alternative to the widespread traditional disease-model view of addiction. Through compelling stories of real people who struggled with various addictions, Lewis lucidly makes the case for a new science-based understanding of what causes and sustains addiction. Most important, it offers far more positivity about ways out of addiction than those offered by traditional treatment, providing hope for those struggling as well as for their loved ones.
Anne M. Fletcher, MS, RD, Author of Sober for Good and Inside Rehab
Informed by unparalleled neuroscientific insight and written with his usual flare, Marc Lewis’s The Biology of Desire effectively refutes the medical view of addiction as a primary brain disease. A bracing and informative rebuke of the muddle that now characterizes public and professional discourse on this topic.
Dr. Gabor Maté, MD, Author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addication
Highly readable and plausible illustration of current ideas about addiction from behavioural neuroscience and clinical perspectives by the use of vivid case histories.
Trevor Robbins, Head of Psychology Department, Cambridge University
Marc Lewis’s new book neatly links current thinking about addiction with neuroscience theory and artfully selected biographies. Ex-addicts, we learn, are not “cured”, rather they have become more connected to others, wiser, and more in touch with their own humanity. This is a hopeful message that has, as Lewis demonstrates, the advantage of also being true.
Gene Heyman, Author of Addiction: Disorder of Choice
Whether you are looking for a foundation in the neuroscience of addiction, guidelines for recovery or just hope that recovery is possible, it’s all here. The scientific information is presented in the context of day-to-day behavior and the lives of individuals you will come to care about. You’ll learn more about neuroscience (and human development and psychology) than you may have thought possible. Informed by this book, you’ll see how neuroscience explains addiction as a part of life, rather than a mysterious entity only experts can understand.
Tom Horvath, President of Practical Recovery and Smart Recovery, and Author of Sex, Drugs, Gambling & Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions
[L]ooks at how addiction and brain science collide, and how understanding our brains can help addicts get out of the abyss … [A] very readable, often touching, gateway into the universe of neuroscience and the shadowland of addiction.
Richard Ferguson, Sydney Morning Herald
[The book's] success lies in its ability to communicate complex ideas in a way that will engage you and move you and sometimes make you laugh … a very readable, often touching, gateway into the universe of neuroscience and the shadowland of addiction.
Esperance Express
The most important study of addiction to be published for many years.
The Spectator