"The searing regret of having made the wrong decision in life and realizing it too late makes this book as heart-wrenching today as it was a century ago. Wharton’s writing style, too, is fresh and durable—surprisingly modern when compared with that of her friend and contemporary Henry James. Among the most memorable passages are her prose portraits. Her mocking 165-word description of the doyenne of New York society Mrs. Manson Mingott in chapter four is a hilarious classic of the genre"

"The narrative around contemporary Africa’s cosmopolitan cities, exciting young people, vibrant artists, and rapidly evolving promise is, happily, becoming increasingly familiar to people around the globe. In this amazing book, David Adjaye looks at architectural space across the continent, dividing it into regions defined by climates and cultures, rather than artificially-derived national boundaries. Here the Maghreb, the desert, the Sahel, the forest, the Savanna and grasslands, and the mountains and high fields, are the defining features of how different architectures throughout Africa can be witnessed."