This is a superb novel, and I was shocked when it didn’t make the Man Booker Longlist. There may be a perfectly obvious, simple reason for its omission. After reading it though, I can’t think of an explanation that’s good enough
Rebecca Pearson, Independent on Sunday

This is a superb novel, and I was shocked when it didn’t make the Man Booker Longlist. There may be a perfectly obvious, simple reason for its omission. After reading it though, I can’t think of an explanation that’s good enough
Rebecca Pearson, Independent on Sunday

Wry, warm-hearted and entertaining
Charlotte Moore, Telegraph

Succinct chapters, replete with horror, humour and the minutiae of everyday life
Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

Wry, warm-hearted and entertaining
Charlotte Moore, Telegraph

Wry, warm-hearted and entertaining
Charlotte Moore, Telegraph

Succinct chapters, replete with horror, humour and the minutiae of everyday life
Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

Succinct chapters, replete with horror, humour and the minutiae of everyday life
Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

A painful, funny, humane, novel: beautifully written, addictively readable and so confident
The Times

Amusing and brisk and charming
Patrick Ness, Guardian

Amusing and brisk and charming
Patrick Ness, Guardian

Amusing and brisk and charming
Patrick Ness, Guardian

A delightfully dry comedy
Max Davidson, Mail on Sunday

A delightfully dry comedy
Max Davidson, Mail on Sunday

A delightfully dry comedy
Max Davidson, Mail on Sunday

A painful, funny, humane, novel: beautifully written, addictively readable and so confident
The Times

This is a masterful novel in which Haddon has surpassed his previous achievement. He pulls off the extraordinary trick of being simultaneously riotously funny, profoundly insightful and deeply poignant… Painted on a small canvas, Haddon has written beautifully about the messiness of life with a poise and grit that few novelists truly possess. Fans of Curious Incident can rest assured that they won’t be disappointed
Julie Wheelwright, Scotland on Sunday

A painful, funny, humane, novel: beautifully written, addictively readable and so confident
The Times

A crisp, light effortless read, a sympathetic and sometimes very funny social comedy that, for the most part, perfectly skewers its hapless protagonists and their hopeless pretensions … Like Nick Hornby… he can bring to everyday life a pleasing solidity and veracity, and he can also place a character with a single, deft phrase
Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times

A crisp, light effortless read, a sympathetic and sometimes very funny social comedy that, for the most part, perfectly skewers its hapless protagonists and their hopeless pretensions … Like Nick Hornby… he can bring to everyday life a pleasing solidity and veracity, and he can also place a character with a single, deft phrase
Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times

Haddon’s style is a reader’s bliss. He writes seamless prose. The words are melted into meaning… Haddon’s gift is to make us look at ourselves when we think we’re looking away, being entertained
Tom Adair, Scotsman

An antidote to cynicism…. Haddon floats insights – sculpted, delicate and precise as origami – on currents of offbeat wit… you don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the waywardness of the human spirit, you are salved by the compassion and humour of the tale. The delight is in the detail
Jennie Renton, Sunday Herald

This is a masterful novel in which Haddon has surpassed his previous achievement. He pulls of the extraordinary trick of being simultaneously riotously funny, profoundly insightful and deeply poignant… Painted on a small canvas, Haddon has written beautifully about the messiness of life with a poise and grit that few novelists truly possess. Fans of Curious Incident can rest assured that they won’t be disappointed
Julie Wheelwright, Scotland on Sunday

This is a masterful novel in which Haddon has surpassed his previous achievement. He pulls of the extraordinary trick of being simultaneously riotously funny, profoundly insightful and deeply poignant… Painted on a small canvas, Haddon has written beautifully about the messiness of life with a poise and grit that few novelists truly possess. Fans of Curious Incident can rest assured that they won’t be disappointed
Julie Wheelwright, Scotland on Sunday

Haddon’s style is a reader’s bliss. He writes seamless prose. The words are melted into meaning… Haddon’s gift is to make us look at ourselves when we think we’re looking away, being entertained
Tom Adair, Scotsman

Haddon’s style is a reader’s bliss. He writes seamless prose. The words are melted into meaning… Haddon’s gift is to make us look at ourselves when we think we’re looking away, being entertained
Tom Adair, Scotsman

It has already been repeat-snubbed by this year's Man Booker judges. They've made a mistake. A Spot of Bother may be a novel about a humdrum family living in Peterborough, told in the third person this time, in deliberately ordinary language. Yet there is more real linguistic artistry, not to mention human empathy, at work, here than in all those poetic prosemongers, the Ondaatjes and the Banvilles... A Spot of Bother is a novel of minor incidents but it tackles big problems
David Sexton, Evening Standard

An antidote to cynicism…. Haddon floats insights –sculpted, delicate and precise as origami – on currents of offbeat wit… you don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the waywardness of the human spirit, you are salved by the compassion and humour of the tale. The delight is in the detail
Jennie Renton, Sunday Herald

An antidote to cynicism…. Haddon floats insights –sculpted, delicate and precise as origami – on currents of offbeat wit… you don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the waywardness of the human spirit, you are salved by the compassion and humour of the tale. The delight is in the detail
Jennie Renton, Sunday Herald

It has already been repeat-snubbed by this year's Man Booker judges. They've made a mistake. A Spot of Bother may be a novel about a humdrum family living in Peterborough, told in the third person this time, in deliberately ordinary language. Yet there is more real linguistic artistry, not to mention human empathy, at work, here than in all those poetic prosemongers, the Ondaatjes and the Banvilles. . . . A Spot of Bother is a novel of minor incidents but it tackles big problems. Strange the judges missed that. Again
David Sexton, Evening Standard

It has already been repeat-snubbed by this year's Man Booker judges. They've made a mistake. A Spot of Bother may be a novel about a humdrum family living in Peterborough, told in the third person this time, in deliberately ordinary language. Yet there is more real linguistic artistry, not to mention human empathy, at work, here than in all those poetic prosemongers, the Ondaatjes and the Banvilles. . . . A Spot of Bother is a novel of minor incidents but it tackles big problems. Strange the judges missed that. Again
David Sexton, Evening Standard