Sunnyside

A kaleidoscopic tale of romance and intrigue...This is a book to remind you of the pleasures of chuckling aloud in public...After a dazzling debut, he has managed to pull off a consummate, ambitious encore. Sunnyside is a cane-twirling, bowler-doffing triumph * Christian House, Independent on Sunday *
Dazzling...a gloriously enjoyable read, with pleasures on almost every page: a novel of which Chaplin, the supreme entertainer, would have been proud * Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph *
An insanely ambitious novel...entertaining and thought-provoking * Aravind Adiga, Financial Times *
A rare fictional portrayal of this enigmatic figure, and Gold's rendition is marvellous...a nuanced portrait that is as moving, and at times as funny, as Chaplin's best works * Michael Saler, Times Literary Supplement *
An epic - and suitably cinematic - tale...Gold displays a prodigious gift for storytelling, with a succession of scintillating set pieces and audacious one-liners...fantastic * Time Out *
Gold has matched a big subject with a suitably big treatment...Chapin himself appears as one of this sprawling, ingenious novel's three central characters as Gold borrows all sorts of silent movie cinematic devices - cliffhangers, rescue scenes, set pieces - and transfers them into fictional form with cracking dash and verve. * Tina Jackson, Metro *
Imaginative, romantic, it's what reading was invented for * Elle *
Entrancing...Reading SUNNYSIDE feels a bit like watching a historical epic with a staggering budget...Gold keeps you busy ogling the lavish costumes and spectacular sets. But he also knows when to reward you with a marvellous close-up. * Helen Echlin, Observer *
A breathless stupendous novel...From lighthouse to Hollywood to starlets to war to stardom to madness to genius Gold's startling narrative carries us across the world and back. Gold proves himself yet again to be the hungriest craftiest funniest and most humane novelist we have. * Junot Díaz *
An elegant blend of reality and fiction, war drama and Hollywood glamour . . . It is wholly exhausting and entirely satisfying: to borrow an idea from Chaplin's great personal-artistic quest in the book, it's a work as good as Gold. * Publishers Weekly *
This brimming saga begins in 1916 with a bang and never lets up...The cascade of historic details Gold generates is breathtaking, but it is his electrifying characters, wildly inventive action replete with comedic mishaps and witty dialogue, and trenchant insights into the absurdity of war and the mythic dimension of movies that gather force and velocity to make this such a hilarious, brilliant, and transporting novel. * Booklist *