Messud is magnificent on female fury . . . The Burning Girl is an astute, subtle novel that conceals an eloquent and clear-eyed rage simmering beneath its surface

Messud captures young adolescence vividly and unjudgementally . . . this is a hard book to stop reading

A novel of deep emotional intelligence . . . There are insightful, psychologically astute meditations throughout the narrative, written in the precise, elegant prose we’ve come to expect from this master storyteller . . . The Burning Girl is reminiscent of My Brilliant Friend

Emotionally intense and quietly haunting

The Woman Upstairs was a clever, audacious portrayal of an untrustworthy protagonist. Informed by the same sophisticated intelligence and elegant prose, but gaining new poignant depths, this novel is haunting and emotionally gripping

A novel that packs a massive punch as it delves into the devastating results of a fractured friendship

Messud’s gift is to understand the nuances of female relationships and believe that they are worthy of sustained and unhurried attention

Two best friends from childhood are forced on to different paths in The Burning Girl. But Claire Messud’s moving writing makes it so much deeper, and gets us to think about growing up, friendship and how girls are treated by society

This is a terrific novel, beautifully written and crafted; I don’t believe Messud could write a duff sentence if she tried

This fierce, melancholy book lays bare the girls’ shared desire to escape their small-town American home for something bigger and brighter, and explores why it went badly awry

Lingeringly evocative, this is a heartfelt coming-of-age tale whose insights – into girlhood especially – are braided with mystery and menace

Claire Messud’s elegant, understated new novel . . . Messud brilliantly renders the uncertainty of Julia’s sense of identity . . . beautifully evocative

Gripping

This is a taut, sure-footed and sobering exploration of girlhood

An exceptionally well-written and emotionally powerful account of one such loss, in which the intense friendship between two prepubescent girls fails as they move from the clarity of childhood towards the uncertainties and dangers of adolescence . . . This novel serves as an examination of the power of the storyteller as much as a reworking of the classic themes of innocence betrayed and love lost . . . Exhilarating, because of Messud’s sheer intelligence, the richness and beauty of her prose and her understanding of the art and value of storytelling. It is a haunting, stunning novel and deserves every prize

Messud’s cut-glass prose reels you into a quietly shocking narrative that chillingly portrays female coming-of-age as a terrifying loss of freedom

Messud painstakingly follows the ebbs and flows of the minutiae of what it means to be and to have a friend when you are struggling to develop an adult identity

This fierce, melancholy book lays bare the girls’ shared desire to escape their small town American home for something bigger and brighter, and reveals how things go terribly awry

Lingeringly evocative, this is an indelible, heartfelt coming-of-age tale whose ample insights are braided with menace

It is a delight to be continuously wrong-footed and bowled over . . . Messud skilfully and compellingly traces the intricacies of friendship and the tragedies that erupt when lives are unmade