The Crow Road

His masterpiece... it's got a beating heart, and you want to keep reading * Daily Express *
One of the best opening lines of any novel... a warm, witty and ultimately very poignant book * Guardian *
Menacing, dark and very funny * Telegraph *
Banks keeps death in its place, under the boot of wit which knows that the most significant romance can blossom whilst your youngest brother is up to the elbow in Sugar Smacks looking for the plastic toy * Observer *
What makes Banks a significant novelist is the love and effort that go into his works, and his acute sense of the ways in which people can suffer... this is Banks's finest novel * Independent on Sunday *
Riveting... exhilarating... its pace, development, intensity and, above all, its hip and sexy humour never allow it to flag. Banks reinforces his credentials as one of the most able, energetic and stimulating writers in the UK * Time Out *
The tense horror of the book...is done with considerable imaginative subtlety and a fine touch....This is as fine and ambitious a novel as any from a Scottish writer since the 1960s. It is also unquestionable Bank's best work to date * New Statesman *
Banks has woven a warm and funny story, rich with characters and adventures. An utterly enchanting piece of fiction... it marks a return to his brilliant best * New Woman *
Tight with detail and closer observation and creates a strong sense of a particular period of growing up * Independent *
Magnificent... a poignant, very funny study of life growing up in Bank's native Scotland. At times as wonderfully light and colourful as its setting the west coast of Scotland and as darkly comic as The Wasp Factory * For Him *
This substantial novel indicates a restless author very firmly in the driver's seat, back on what appears to be a Scottish route with intriguing potential destinations * Scotsman *
Prentice is a most engaging narrator, self-deprecating, funny and hopelessly self-deceiving * Daily Telegraph *