The River Capture

One of the most surprising and original novels of 2019 . . . Exceptional . . . This is a sensory book that draws on the body to feed the mind * * The Times * *
Elegantly written . . . Exquisite and impressionistic prose * * Observer * *
A self-confessed homage to James Joyce . . . Costello writes insightfully * * Sunday Times * *
Luminous . . . Unexpected . . . An audacious act of literary ventriloquism and one that Costello pulls off astonishingly successfully . . . Joyce devotees will discover much to enjoy in this clever homage, while fans of contemporary Irish literature will find a subtle, slightly melancholy, engrossing read -- Melissa Harrison * * Guardian * *
The River Capture is breathtaking. It is profound in the most bruising way; elegant, and then thrillingly savage; expansive, but masterfully precise, and full of sentences that made me choke on jealous rage. Costello is in a different class altogether -- LISA McINERNEY
Astonishingly bittersweet and beautiful, The River Capture is a quiet, important, hypnotic book about absolutely everything. It is as near perfect as it is possible for a novel to be -- SARA BAUME
A hypnotic read revealing how the ebb and flow of memory, family loyalty and love can disrupt the current of a life * * Mail on Sunday * *
Powerful . . . The River Capture reminds us that everything is connected, that we are, as humans, not separate from the teeming world of nature around us . . . Lyrical * * Financial Times * *
A virtuoso performance in catching the whole texture of a life * * Sunday Times * *
Intense, engrossing, a novel that constantly subverts the reader's expectation - Mary Costello is a truly startling talent -- KEVIN BARRY
The most beautiful new novel I read this year. A love letter to Joyce and Ulysses -- John Self * * Irish Times, Books of the Year * *
Costello's writing is truly beautiful and this book will hypnotise you from the first page to the last * * Stylist * *
Profound, elegant, laced with lyricism . . . With all its intertextual richness, The River Capture is a fertile addition to the literary ecosystem * * Times Literary Supplement * *
Mary Costello's audacious second novel, the successor to the Costa-shortlisted Academy Street, confirms her as one to watch . . . A homage to Joyce . . . Costello's characters have a persuasive, urgent life that leaves a lasting impression * * Daily Mail * *
Adventurous in its ambitions . . . Beautifully crafted * * Guardian * *
Bold, audacious, and beautiful -- TRACEY THORN * * New Statesman * *
A Joycean love story awash with the past . . . Atmospheric. The mesmeric prose, like the river rendered is "something alive and benevolent" * * Irish Times * *
One of the most intriguing works by an Irish writer since Mike McCormack's Solar Bones . . . Full of tenderness, beauty and some deeply affecting human introspection * * Sunday Independent * *
Costello plays with the borders of psychological realism in this ruminative, dream-like novel, which sweeps up ideas about animal rights, the legacy of trauma, the fluidity of sexual experience and the purpose of art itself within the fragmenting, restlessly questioning perceptions of one man's gradual breakdown * * Metro * *
A writer of extraordinary vision . . . Deeply absorbing * * Irish Independent, Books of the Year * *
Deft and elegant, earthy and immersing, The River Capture is a searingly close portrait of a protagonist unravelling. The legacy of Joyce, family secrets, duty and desire, hope and loneliness are the strands that wind through Luke's story. The result is utterly compelling -- JESS KIDD
A novel of glorious abundance: reverent and angry and earthy and spiritual. Costello takes the familiar and transforms it, again and again, into soaring meditations on love, sensuality, human cruelty. To read The River Capture is to witness a writer in evolution, taking her work to a whole new level. This is a bold, sophisticated, beautiful novel, both a homage to Joyce and a deeply personal and contemporary work -- MOLLY McCLOSKEY
This ambitious new Irish novel sets out to follow in some daunting literary footsteps, and rewards the effort required to read it * * Irish Independent * *
Sublime * * Skinny * *
This is an extremely fine novel, one that needs to be read slowly so as to appreciate the small jewels of detail and not be overwhelmed by the stresses of another's mind so fully depicted . . . A brilliant as well as eye opening read * * NB Magazine * *