Reviews for The Dark Circle

Fantastic review have come in for Linda’s latest novel, The Dark Circle

‘Exhilaratingly good… This is a novel whose engine is flesh and blood, not cold ideas… Grant brings the 1950s – that odd, downbeat, fertile decade between war and sexual liberation – into sharp, bright, heart-breaking focus’- Guardian, Christabel Kent

‘The Dark Circle is a fine novel, and further proof that Grant can conjure up a special mood in a specific period, with great humour and humanity’ – Telegraph

‘In clear unadorned prose, Grant does a fine job of encouraging us to find joy in the small pleasure of these diminished lives’ – The Financial Times

‘The Dark Circle is a compelling tale’ – Sunday Express

‘Linda Grant weaves a series of deft portraits, capturing the spirit of the group as it wavers on a precipice’ – TLS

‘A rich, engaging novel, further proof that Grant can conjure up a special mood in a specific period with great humour’ – Sunday Telegraph

‘It really is an amazing subject, wonderfully depicted in its setting, with plausible people whom I grew to love…and the most amazing plot developments. So original and full of life. For someone who remembers those days it was totally plausible…. – Joan Bakewell

‘Linda Grant’s The Dark Circle is an extraordinary depiction of the physical and emotional experience of illness. She marvellously communicates the poignancy of youth and sexuality in the presence of impending death. Grant’s voice is unlike any other writer; so immediate and engaged even when writing historical fiction’ – Natasha Walter

‘…refreshingly original’ – The Independent

‘The Dark Circle feels personal to me….an enthralling cast….Grant captures the stigma that surrounded TB perfectly. The Dark Circle shows us why
it was once so feared’ – Evening Standard, Rosamund Urwin

‘…a writer whose language crackles with vitality and whose descriptive powers are working at such a high level’ – Spectator, Susan Hill

‘Linda Grant brings a forgotten slice of social and medical history to life by conjuring a rich cast of disparate…characters observed with wry humour and affection to produce an absorbing and profoundly moving story’ – Daily Mail, review, John Harding

‘The Dark Circle is, beneath its narrative surface, fiercely political. She poses a large, naggingly relevant, question. What would (will?) privatisation of the NHS mean? Read this fine, persuasive, moving novel and contemplate — if you can dare to — that awful possibility’ – Times, John Sutherland

‘…thoroughly researched, with an emphasis on authentic historical detail’ – Sunday Times

‘The novel is funny but also poignant…I loved it’ – Stylist

‘The Dark Circle is an immensely enjoyable and beautifully written book, filled with humour and pathos’- Literary Review, Ian Critchley

‘Grant’s take on sanatorium life is a far cry from Mann’s The Magic Mountain or its romanticised ilk, and this makes for refreshingly original reading … an astonishingly good period piece’ – Independent, Lucy Scholes

‘A revealing insight…both funny and illuminating, it is a novel about what it means to treat people well, medically, emotionally and politically’
– Observer, Hannah Beckerman

‘…she’s so good at conjuring up atmosphere and writes with earthy vivacity’ – Mail on Sunday, Anthony Gardner

‘ As a work of social history it is brilliant… and many of the characters are exciting and involving and I love the end’ – Melissa Harrison

‘The Book is full of gem-like moments’ – Rosie Boycott