"The time and place seem so remote as to be unearthly, and the style has a stealthy quality, like a silent fall of snow; suddenly, the reader is enveloped. The story creeps up and possesses the imagination; there’s something eerie in the way half-understood and only half-seen events leave their mark. It’s a powerful feat of suggestion, visually acute, skilfully written; it won’t easily erase its tracks in the reader’s mind."

—Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Prize-Winning author