The Orchard on Fire (Virago Modern Classics) - Tapa blanda

An extremely beautiful and funny novel . . . The Orchard on Fire is probably Mackay's most perfect book, produced with a technical adroitness and shapeliness which one can only envy (Philip Hensher Guardian)

Shena Mackay has brought off something quite rare ... the author has set out a rite of passage which will leave few readers unaffected (Anita Brookner Spectator)

Totally authentic, agonisingly nostalgic, this poignant everyday story of Fifties folk has the power to lay bare everyone's susceptibility to the ghosts that forever teem around the scenes of our childhood (Val Hennessy Daily Mail)

Shena Mackay is a writer in prime: at the height of her powers ... Her prose is flawlessly seductive and comic, confidently witty and sensual (Julie Myerson Independent on Sunday)

An eloquent, beautifully written, unpretentious novel about a Fifties childhood . . . Mackay moved this reader to tears, not from grief but from joy. Now there's a skill (Fay Weldon Mail on Sunday)

A celebration of childhood as well as a mourning for the loss of innocence . . . a bitter-sweet, gentle novel, not given to grandstanding or preaching, but shot through with humour and compassion. Her writing brilliantly captures the spirit of the place, where every present sensation has ghostly overtones that make the experience all the more sad and lovely (Times Literary Supplement)

So touched with magic, so achingly sad and funny that my breath was taken away . . . wonderful (Elizabeth Buchan The Times)