"The ultimate prose book. There is no one greater or darker than Carson. This book follows a creature named Red who is part boy, part winged monster. It's a coming of age story about a Kafkaesque boy and the exploration of his body and sexuality. Absolutely brilliant from start to finish. I used a quote from it to open the last book I wrote, "What's it like to be a woman listening in the dark?" That's the million dollar question."

"Sure, it’s uneven. For every Book of Job there’s a Book of Leviticus, featuring some of the most boring prose ever written. But if you were stranded on a desert island, what book would better reward long study? And has there ever been a more beautiful distillation of existential philosophy than the Book of Ecclesiastes? Excluding those bizarre final verses, which seem to have been tacked on long after the book’s original composition, by priests nervous about the subversive message."