The Prince's Boy - Tapa dura

A writer whose tone is like a long, cool drink on a sweaty day ... Rich in character studies, yet so delicately written one barely registers at first its many layers and nuances, The Prince's Boy is a winterly evocation of a grief and love that will not wither . Tender and profoundly touching, this is a novel whose almost dry manner could lure the reader into thinking the author has no designs on you. By its end, however, his fingers have squeezed your heart (Herald)

What sets it apart is Bailey's elegant, elegiac prose and his moving, thought-provoking reflections on art and mortality (Mail on Sunday)

A thoroughly satisfying book ... Paul Bailey, twice shortlisted for the Booker prize, has the same ability as Graham Greene to craft remarkable emotion and beauty from words than on the face of it are prosaic. There is no over-writing here, just superb, utterly readable prose (Independent on Sunday)

An elegant meditation on love, sex and Marcel Proust ... Moving seamlessly between memoirs and dreams, The Prince's Boy sparkles with witty references to À la recherché du temps perdu (Sunday Telegraph)

Bailey writes exquisitely about everything he touches upon, from falling in love to fascism ... the elegant narrative holds an intensity that crackles to the very end (Sunday Times)

Bailey writes with lyrical beauty; this novel is charming and poignant (The Times)

Bailey's precise, polished and often exquisite writing eloquently gestures towards the love between Dinu and Rázvan (Times Literary Supplement)

Bailey has mastered the craft of telling a large story through small but piquant details and knowing where the reader can be left to fill in the spaces. His nimble-footed storytelling moves lightly over great distances of time and space to produce something like a Victorian novel in miniature (Guardian)

Bailey writes with lyrical beauty . This novel is a charming, poignant little wisp of a thing (The Times)

Spare and taut (Daily Telegraph)