The Last Samurai

Her style is brilliantly heartless, and cork-dry; original herself, she is a witty examiner of human and cultural eccentricity. She is, above all, playful… What grounds all DeWitt’s brilliance and game-playing is the way that she dramatizes a certain kind of hyperintelligent rationalism and probes its irregular distribution of blindness and insight…a wonderfully funny book, but comedy dances near the abyss; the apprehension of humor’s frailty links DeWitt to the tragicomic tradition of Cervantes, Sterne, and Nabokov -- James Wood * New Yorker *
Fiercely intelligent, very funny and unlike anything else I’ve ever read -- Mark Haddon
A triumph – a genuinely new story, a genuinely new form -- A. S. Byatt
A bold, brilliant book…original both in content and form… DeWitt’s zeal cannot fail to enchant * Guardian *
An exhilaratingly literate and playful first novel by a fresh, electrifying talent. DeWitt goes to the top of the class...her adventurousness spins out on an epic scale * New York Times *
A brilliant debut novel...keeps things moving at an exhilarating clip... DeWitt is formidably intelligent but engagingly witty * Washington Post *
Destined to become a classic -- Garth Risk Hallberg
The Last Samurai is an original work of brilliance about, in part, the limits of brilliance. And in literature as in life, DeWitt understands that what we like most of all is a good yarn * Time *
You walk into a book due to an Akira Kurosawa link and your fondness for the great film-maker. You walk out, staggered by the book's originality and bravery... It should be read by everyone * Irish Times *
I adored this crazy, fabulous, lovable book… This really does deserve to be a modern classic * The Pool *
A brilliant and sad book… The funniest book I’ve read in years. * Spectator *
Helen DeWitt is a real find – I loved this book * Independent on Sunday *
It is exciting for the future of the novel that a writer can do all the basic things readers need – from Peter Pan to the Odyssey, from Bleak House to The Crying of Lot 49 – and do something new with the form of the tale itself * New Yorker *
A delightful and original novel – expansive and intelligent writing * Daily Telegraph *
DeWitt pushes against the limitations of the novel as a form; reading her, one wants to push against the limitations of one’s own brain * Paris Review *
An original, daring novel, The Last Samurai could well become a classic – accessible and as unremittingly entertaining to the casual reader as it is rewarding to those who would delve further * Times Literary Supplement *
A tremendous novel. DeWitt is one of the most interesting writers working in the English language today -- David Flusfeder
A singular masterpiece * Vulture *
The Last Samurai is a book everyone should be talking about * Huffington Post *
De Witt has intelligence, wit and unusual stylistic bravery * Guardian *