All the Beloved Ghosts

Like a piece of finely wrought ironwork, uncommonly delicate but at the same time astonishingly strong and tensile . . . a novel of staggering elegance and beauty * Independent *
MacLeod is dazzlingly good at evoking a whole life through a single snapshot and at bending and stretching her prose as she moves between an impressive range of narrative personae -- Lara Feigel * Guardian *
An intelligent, perceptive novel by a writer of great descriptive power … Like her modernist forebears, MacLeod knows that life and death, the terrible and the mundane always co-exist - her genius lies in illustrating these truths while simultaneously spinning a bona fide pageturner * Daily Mail *
MacLeod's fictions are evocations of desire and its mysteries . . . [Her] characters are strong, and they are worth listening to * Guardian *
Compelling, fast-paced, powerful. The descriptions of wartime Brighton are pin-sharp . . . the denouement is as heartrending as it is unexpected * Financial Times *
Finely wrought, moving and haunting. What a wonderful novel this is. Bravo Alison MacLeod -- Polly Samson
Unexploded is an unforgettable book. With exquisitely researched and rendered detail, the author plunges us into the panic and paranoia of war -- Bidisha
A persuasive period setting, an intricate plot, sumptuous prose * Daily Telegraph *
MacLeod has an engaged delight in the stuff of life * Times Literary Supplement *
Full of simmering tension, resentment and unexpressed passion . . . A bold, cleverly-told story from a writer who knows exactly what she’s doing -- Viv Groskop * Observer *
The author’s grasp of emotions, and history of art as well as politics, lend depth and charge … [There is also] the sensuality of MacLeod’s prose, whether dealing with art, desire or love; and her uncanny way of allowing us to experience the thought processes of her characters as if they are traversing our own brain synapses * Independent on Sunday *
Alison MacLeod is a strikingly original voice. Her stories create intimate worlds … and make the reader live in them with an intensity which is haunting, disturbing and above all beguiling -- Helen Dunmore
MacLeod's range - spanning the movingly real to the mysteriously surreal - is excitingly, imaginatively realised and unified in awareness of the dark menace of love's uncertainty * Metro *
Excellence book-ended by brilliance ... An eruption of ideas and linguistic flair ... Highly recommended * Time Out *
Compelling characters and pin-sharp insights into their emotional and psychological landscapes are Alison MacLeod's strong suit ... These are arresting tales; undercurrents of passion swirl beneath their controlled, elegant surfaces -- Book of the Week * The Lady *
if you only read one book of short-stories this year, it should be this one ... MacLeod obviously loves taking risks - mixing the metaphysical with the mundane - and she is so brilliant at it that she never fails to keep the reader engaged * Daily Mail *
This blurring of reality and imagination gives the stories an unsettling quality ... The stories exercise a hypnotic effect, providing a kaleidoscope of life, colour and anguish -- The best new literary fiction * Daily Express *
Throughout these stories we are reminded, with skillful subtlety, of just how much the past is integral to the present * Country Life *
Seamlessly knots together essayistic and imaginative modes of writing...McLeod's formal sophistication and her impeccably elegant, richly textured prose make this another collection to savour -- Edmund Gordon * Sunday Times *
Short story lovers will devour Alison MacLeod's evocative All The Beloved Ghosts * Stylist *
The story entitled 'We Are Methodists' proved as page-turning as any thriller … The stories are clever and meaningful, but in a good way: perfectly balanced, told with wit, insight and delicious phrasing. Brilliant! * Sussex Life *