A House for Alice

Evans's writing is...subtle but grounded, lyrical yet accessible. Her characters feel real, their interactions - particularly that tense space where the political and domestic meet - nuanced * Sunday Times *
[An] ambitious tale of a family in contemporary London... [Evans's] wide cast of women are deftly drawn. There's heart and humour in abundance * The Times *
The sheer vitality of Evans's dynamic prose... renders almost hypnotic her constant toggling between the prosaic and the metaphysical. There are some deft set pieces too, dramatising intimacy's most finely nuanced dynamics * Guardian *
A warm but devastating narrative, dealing with the fallout of the Grenfell tragedy... Like any Evans novel, it is unputdownable * Harper's Bazaar, *Books to Look Out For 2023* *
One of our most outstanding writers . . .A House for Alice [is] a stunning multi-generational kaleidoscope of London . . . Evans writes with exceptional profundity and is exemplary at exploring the inner workings of her fictional characters through a prose style so poetic you want to languish in her sentences. * Bernardine Evaristo, Vogue *
A wise, tender novel about family and love that explores the tension between duty and desire and the question of what 'home' really means * Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane and Love Marriage *
I adored it. Her writing is exquisite: every sentence a jewel; every paragraph containing some insight that makes you draw breath with its rightness * Elizabeth Day, author of How To Fail and Magpie *
At every point, whether sad or funny, A House for Alice is compassionate and sharp * Telegraph *
Ambitious in scope ... The story is engrossing and moving * Independent *
Diana Evans is fast proving herself a novelist to rank alongside Anne Tyler, so adept is she at parsing life's longings and upheavals... highly enjoyable, tenderly wrought * Daily Mail *
This intimate, melodic novel explores notions of home, family and long-held secrets * Mail on Sunday *
A House For Alice is a sharp appraisal of loss. Evans writes deftly about the shifting intimacies between family * Raven Leilani, author of Luster *
All is conjured with Evans's keen eye for human behaviour... Her prose is distinguished by its lively, lyrical energy, by its seemingly effortless expansiveness, and by masterful turns of phrase * Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton *
'Diana Evans's writing is so singular, so arresting, characterful, and so beautiful . . . Evans is always, always on the finest of forms' * Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie and People Person *
Mesmerising... Few writers describe with such inventiveness, eloquence and thoroughness, even in the most seemingly mundane situations. * Michael Donkor *
This is a knowingly and at times devastatingly elegiac novel... through the delicacy of her [Evans's] prose, the deftness of her dialogue and the clarity of her observations, she manages to create a novel that measures up to life...A House for Alice...marks itself out as that rare thing: a sequel that feels necessary * Times Literary Supplement *
Evans is a profoundly important chronicler of our times. Her velveteen prose is utterly precise, so detailedand artful . . . A writer at the top of her game * Leone Ross *
Superb. A deeply enriching and profound novel. Diana Evans is one of our greatest writers. We're so lucky to have her * Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch *
'A poignant and elegant unfurling of the intricacies of family life - sensitively observed and beautifully written' * Nicola Rollock, author of The Racial Code *
An orchestral, richly textured portrait of interconnected middle-class Black lives in contemporary London . . . Witty, poignant and emotionally acute * The Bookseller *
A state-of-the-nation masterpiece... This is rich, multi-layered novel of interconnected lives... another rich, detailed portrait of not-so-ordinary people * Harper's Bazaar *
Beautifully conceived, A House for Alice is a luminous, big-hearted novel about the people and things that enable us to find, keep and call somewhere a home * Financial Times *
A rich evocation of south London, a poignant account of a dwindling marriage and a lovely celebration of music * Guardian *
An impressive sequel to 2018's Ordinary People * Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023* *
[A] tender yet political tale * Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2023* *
Lyrical and excoriating * Guardian, *Books of the Year* *