Little

Rich and engrossing, there is an extraordinary potency to Carey's material . . . A visceral, vivid and moving novel * Guardian *
One of the most original historical novels of the year . . . Inspired, vivid and macabre, Little is a remarkable achievement' * Sunday Times Book of the Year *
Don't miss this eccentric charmer -- Margaret Atwood
Wonderful -- Max Porter
The beautifully told (and illustrated!) story of the life of Marie Tussaud, or how tall trees can grow from small seeds. An eccentric atmosphere, a macabre sense of humour, we experience this book with a sense of youthful joy. An unmissable book -- Olga Tokarczuk
Startlingly original . . . [Carey] finds and treasures the ironies and macabre eccentricities of Tussaud's world. The pages are also enriched by his beautiful and haunting illustrations * Times Book of the Year *
Edward Carey is one of the strangest writers we are privileged to have in this country * Observer *
Absolutely brilliant -- Susan Hill
Marie's story is fascinating in itself, but Carey's talent makes her journey a thing of wonder * New York Times *
Uniquely inventive . . . It is variously nightmarish, dreamy, sensual, emotionally affecting and very funny * Big Issue Book of the Year *
A gripping novel of shy wit and darkly humorous occurrences . . . Mesmerising in its virtuosity * Irish Independent *
Carey creates a quirky, indelible character in Little, sprinkles idiosyncratic drawings throughout and folds his narrative in cunning ways * BBC Culture *
A tale as moving as it is macabre * Mail on Sunday *
A darkly fascinating tale packed full of vivid historical detail and quaint, engaging characters * Sunday Express *
Compelling . . . Carey's story is cinematic in scope and fairy tale-like in its attention to coincidence - and to the fateful cycle of pride and fall * TLS *
Poignant and absorbing * Literary Review *
Clever and intriguing * Daily Mail *
In this gloriously gruesome imagining of the girlhood of Marie Tussaud, mistress of wax, fleas will bite, rats will run and heads will roll and roll and roll . . . I bloody loved it * Spectator *
A startlingly remarkable flight of historical fancy where fact, fiction, tragedy and Grand Guignol collide * i Newspaper *
Carey's flair for macabre whimsy has drawn comparisons to Tim Burton - but while death haunts this story, Little is a novel that teems with life * Time *
Written with relentless energy, flair and finesse * The Herald *
Full of rich detail and beautiful illustrations . . . A rare treat that will stay with you long after you turn the final page * Heat *
What a bizarrely brilliant book. An absorbing, moving and darkly humorous reimagining of the life of Marie Groscholtz, the little servant girl who would become Madame Tussaud -- Anna Mazzola
By turns witty, ghoulish and poignant - a historical novel unlike any other' * BBC History Magazine *
Strange and delightful' * Vanity Fair *
Little is that rare thing - a unique novel with a unique and fully realised voice, rich in deadpan wit and surgically precise observation. By turns tragic, bizarre and deeply moving, it is an absolute delight -- A. L. Kennedy
An utter triumph . . . I was blown away -- Philip Ardagh
Compulsively readable: so canny and weird and surfeited with the reality of human capacity and ingenuity that I am stymied for comparison. Dickens and David Lynch? Defoe meets Atwood? Judge for yourself -- Gregory Maguire
Edward Carey writes wonderfully weird books about wonderfully weird things. This one is a hefty historical novel that promises to be a pageturner -- Celeste Ng
An exquisitely disturbing treasure of a novel. Sensual, unassumingly poignant, hilarious, heartbreaking, cruel, joyous: one of the most intoxicating novels I've ever read -- Sarah Schmidt
Moving, dark, and occasionally heartbreaking - a book to be read by the light of a flickering candle -- Nigel Slater
Bawdy, tragic, mesmerising, hilarious. If you've forgotten why you'd even read a novel, Edward Carey is here to set you straight -- Alexander Chee
Exquisitely sensitive to all the warmth, vigour, humour, woe, and peculiarities of human nature, as if Carey had a dowsing rod capable of divining what hides within the human heart -- Kelly Link
I marvel at the achievement of this book . . . Little isn't about history; it's about humans, and bodies, and art, and loneliness, and it's deeply, painfully sad. I could talk about it forever * NPR *
Dark and delightful, playful and peculiar, Little is simply magnetic: Carey's words seem to dance on the page. Little is big in many ways: creativity, energy, concept and character. Leave plenty of room in your heart for this one; you'll need it * Shelf Awareness *
With an irresistible cast of grotesques and a delicious lightness of touch, Little delivers a great and peculiar vision of Paris crashing over the rapids * Strong Words Magazine *
A perfectly weaved story of a woman who has captured the imagination of many, but has been written about by few * Culture Trip *
This historical novel about the wax-sculptor who would become the world-renowned Madame Tussaud looks uncannily like a real-life classic * Washington Post *
The kind of book you want to shove into the hands of all your friends, just so you have someone to gush about it with * Buzzfeed *
Little is quirky, eccentric, offbeat, Gothic and all the other descriptives fondly applied to Carey's peculiarly elegant prose * Dallas Morning News *
Gruesomely entertaining . . . This rousing, macabre novel showcases a sensibility that falls somewhere between Les Misérables and the works of Edward Gorey * Barnes & Noble *
There is nothing ordinary about this book. Carey, with sumptuous turns of phrase, fashions a fantastical world that churns with vitality . . . at once surreal and full of heart * Publishers Weekly *
Carey channels the ghosts of Dickens, Fielding, and the Brothers Grimm to tell Marie's tale . . . A quirky, compelling story that deepens into a meditation on mortality and art * Kirkus Reviews *
A wonderfully weird exploration of spectacles, from wax heads to revolutions, that will delight lovers of the macabre * BookPage *
Lavishly illustrated with strange and compelling drawings, Little is a boldly original reimagining of the life of Madame Tussaud * Library Journal *
An immensely creative epic . . . The unique perspective, witty narrative voice, and clever illustrations make for an irresistible read * Booklist *