The Crane Wife

Patrick Ness is on top form here . . . The Crane Wife is a tale full of bittersweet wonder with a very human soul. A treat. -- Matt Haig
The Crane Wife is a special novel: a perfect fusion of surreal imagery and beautifully crafted internal logic. Turning it over in my hands once I'd finished, I began to think of it as the literary equivalent of a Japanese puzzle box with poetry, ideas and jokes twisting and sliding out of it at surprising angles -- Helen Brown * * Daily Telegraph * *
Delightful and heart-warming * * Grazia * *
The dialogue is natural and inspired, and sparkles with latent tension * * Independent on Sunday * *
A lovely and magical book -- T.C. Boyle
This is a novel that treads with feather-deft steps through ordinary lives touched by magic, then takes flight on wing beats of powerful storytelling -- ALI SHAW, author of The Girl with Glass Feet
A heart-warmingly deranged new voice * * Guardian * *
When George and his daughter, with their seemingly ordinary quirks and heartbreaks, are befriended by an enigmatic woman, art, beauty, and myth become living forces in their lives. This poignant novel echoes with the longings and sorrows of the ages. But what came as a most delightful surprise is the humor and humanity that Patrick Ness brings to this story -- EOWYN IVEY, author of The Snow Child
Ness is both accessible and sophisticated, handling big subjects in prose that is simple and heart-stopping -- Sunday Times (on the Chaos Walking trilogy)
An insanely beautiful writer * * Time Magazine * *
Ness is a young writer of exciting quality and unpredictability * * The Times * *
Patrick Ness recreates the world as we know it, infusing it with a charm and whimsy -- T.C. Boyle
This is quite simply one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It hits an emotional tone that I can't quite put my finger on. It is a story told so simply yet reaches every fibreof your being. It is sad yet inspirational, full of hope but also despair, full of the magic of life but also it's consequences * * Bite The Book * *
I laughed, and I cried . . . but before it was over, I also felt like I'd lived another life, and died a little inside. That's how powerful Patrick Ness' new novel is -- Niall Alexander * * Tor.com * *
This is a novel about stories and the way they change from teller to teller. That motif emerges subtly at first, before becoming explicit as the climactic calamity arrives in several versions. By that painful finale, this flight of fancy is one his readers will be only too glad to have embarked upon -- Brian Donaldson * * The List * *
A fusion of mid-life crisis comedy and classic storytelling -- Kate Saunders * * The Times * *
It is rare to read a fictional reworking of a myth that doesn't simplify its source, that can do what myths do and convey a truth that the reader responds to but cannot necessarily define. The Crane Wife succeeds in this, which is why it is truly a book for grown-ups -- Jake Kerridge * * Literary Review * *
Brave and beautiful, full of compassion -- Independent (on A Monster Calls)
Implicit in The Crane Wife is an insistence that differences are constructive and stories polysemous. Ness' stories exist simultaneously vibrating alongside one another, not jostling for positions so much as offering as many meanings as one can handle, and steadfastly refusing to be reduced to any one narrative of signification * * Words of Mercury * *
[The Crane Wife] opens windows to a world that is magical, timeless and wonderful and it stirred my heart in a way that few books can. If you've any interest at all in love, beauty and what makes us human, you should read this book and let it work its magic on you -- Penny Tattersall * * Little Reader Library * *
The Crane Wife is a magical and beautiful book - spellbinding from start to finish * * Herald on Sunday (New Zealand) * *
It is rare to read a fictional reworking of a myth that doesn't simplify its source, that can do what myths do and convey a truth that the reader responds to but cannot necessarily define. The Crane Wife succeeds in this, which is why it is truly a book for grown-ups -- Jake Kerridge * * Literary Review * *
A memorable and meaningful work on the combined elements of kindness, love, regret, loss and forgiveness -- Lou Pendergrast * * More2Read * *
I absolutely adored The Crane Wife. It made me cry at the start, possibly at the end, and a few times, with laughter, through the middle . . . I still find myself pondering what has happened to the characters since, always the sign of a good read, and the writing just blew me away * * Savidge Reads * *
A great new book from a great writer who we have been harping on and on about for years and years * * Booktrust * *
The Crane Wife is that bittersweet mix of happy-sad satisfaction, a beautiful something that stays in the mind in the hours and days after the book is closed and the reading finished, a consideration of who we are and what we seek in and from life -- Stardust Reader
Ness is a highly accomplished storyteller and the gravitational pull of the earthbound strand of his tale is strong enough to stop it from floating off into whimsy. He also has a rare ability to cut poignancy with humour. Folk tales rely less on their message than the pervasiveness of their atmosphere and while Ness's moral remains more opaque than clear, the mood he creates is unsettling and potent -- Michael Prodger * * Financial Times * *
The shifting points of view infuse our world with a bright, spiritual resonance -- Ben Felsenburg * * Metro * *
Patrick Ness's effortless prose enchants as the doomed love affair unfolds to reveal the inevitable, tear-jerking confl agration at the novel's end -- Sarah Crowden * * The Lady * *
The writing is magical, infused with everyday living yet blends with it the element of folklore with great tact. I left the book while I was about to sleep and found myself waking up in the middle of the night and turning the pages right through * * The Hungry Reader * *
The Crane Wife will leave you moved and possibly in tears. The writing is sharp and funny, beautiful and ephemeral. It's a book about stories and love, art and beauty told in an unexpectedly moving way; it will carry you up on the wings of the crane marvelling at the beauty to be found in being human * * Bookmunch * *
The Crane Wife is a delight. Who would I recommend it to? Anyone who is bored with reality. Anyone who likes to find joy, innocence and beauty in life * * Lynette Washington * *
A suburban morality tale, set in all-too-real south London, but transformed into something delicate and full of wonder * * Financial Times * *
This is a novel that will transport you in all kinds of ways; whether you read it in bed, at the breakfast table, on the tube or the subway, or surreptitiously while at worl, it will work its patient magic on you, and it will linger in your mind and heart long after you've put it down * * Dreaming Between The Lies * *