"Brilliant.fascinating and infuriating.Kureishi has an extraordinary gift for creating vivid characters."-- The Boston Globe "A wonderful novel. I doubt I will read a funnier one, or one with more heart, this year, possibly this decade."-- Angela Carter, Guardian "One of the best comic novels of growing up, and one of the sharpest satires on race relations in this country that I've ever read."-- Independent on Sunday "Brilliantly funny. A fresh, anarchic and deliciously unrestrained novel.

"-- Sunday Times (London) "A distinctive and talented voice, blithe, savvy, alive and kicking."-- Hermione Lee, Independent (London) "Delectable.Resembling a modern-day Tom Jones , this is an astonishing book, full of intelligence and elan."-- Publishers Weekly "This remarkably fine first novel from the author of the screenplays My Beautiful Launderette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid is a freewheeling tour through the London of the 1970's--a London as vice- and class-ridden as that of a Hogarth engraving."-- Kirkus Reviews.