Each Leaf, Each Curve of Stem Signed Edition

MacKenzie has an almost painterly approach to storytelling. Each character is carefully and vividly rendered. Each sentence sings off the page … a tender and deeply humane portrait of Ruskin, revealing as much of his flawed humanity as his much celebrated genius. This is historical fiction at its most empathetic and intimate -- JAN CARSON
Assured, confident and compassionate, MacKenzie’s account of Ruskin’s life cuts through the prurient myth to give us the man as he likely was – a lonely, introverted and mentally fragile man of great intellect, lofty beliefs and quiet but intense passions -- ANNIE GARTHWAITE
Rare and tremendous. Reading this novel is like opening a new map of human experience - tracing a finger along that boundary where, with the force of tectonic plates, our inner world collides with the outer universe. John Ruskin seems born to this precipice, his need to fathom existence inescapable, art and empathy erupting along its buckles and folds, unstoppable as earthquakes and volcanoes. I adored this timely miracle of a novel -- AOIFE FITZPATRICK
A lifelong fan of John Ruskin, I read this novel in a gulp, with huge admiration. It’s a vivid portrait of the man, encompassing all of his strangeness and brilliance. Ruskin’s obsessive genius, what might be called his ‘madness,’ is amply on display in these pages, and the plot spins with finely tuned calibrations. Victoria MacKenzie is a marvellous writer, and her novel shimmers, moving across a wide range of settings, full of narrative grace and power -- JAY PARINI
Oh my, this is a brilliant, brilliant book. MacKenzie’s John Ruskin is as finely wrought as Tóibín’s Thomas Mann or Henry James. Few writers are capable of fashioning the intricacy of archival research and the life of such a complicated human being into such empathetic and beautifully imagined prose. The result is a Ruskin of flesh and bone; a human who, like the rest of us, is above all in pursuit of meaning and human connection -- KAREN LLOYD
A profoundly intimate, sensitive and moving portrait of a troubled soul. Ingenious -- SEAN LUSK
I loved this. It's deft, moving, surprising. A portrait of a great thinker that makes him intensely human, and an exploration of his life's work on beauty, how we see, and what really matters -- ALICIA FOSTER
Praise for For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain: Miraculously conjured ... Brilliantly done * THE TIMES, Book of the Month *
A beautiful book ... It warmed my heart -- MAX PORTER
Electrifying ... A pocket epic * GUARDIAN *
The best first novel I've read in years ... So full and so vivid; it is amazing -- RODDY DOYLE
A vibrant portrait of female courage * OBSERVER *
A novel of rare brightness and clarity, concise and yet capacious: it illuminates like a shaft of sunlight -- IMOGEN HERMES GOWAR
MacKenzie evokes an almost unimaginably distant worldview with sympathy and sincerity * FINANCIAL TIMES *
A startling read ... Magic -- JO BROWNING WROE
Moving and unexpected, Mackenzie writes with great clarity and tenderness ... I tore through this -- JULIA ARMFIELD
Magnificent, bold and compelling -- ROSIE ANDREWS
Absolutely cracking. I couldn’t put it down, it’s so simply but powerfully written. One of my favourite reads of 2023 -- JAN CARSON
Mind-expanding stuff * GUARDIAN, Summer reading – 50 brilliant books to discover *
Stunningly original ... Not only shines a light on the lives and experiences of two ‘ordinary’ women, but draws clear contemporary echoes and parallels – around mental health, grief, motherhood and more – that resonate long after reading * MARIE CLAIRE, The best books of 2023 *
Honest, insightful, erudite and wise -- ANNIE GARTHWAITE