Hotel Iris

Both strange and lovely… what I like most about Hotel Iris is the restrained style of the narrative. Everything is held perfectly in check. And yet it brims with tension… [It] makes me want to explore more of this fascinating author’s work. * Reading Matters *
It's brave territory for Ogawa, and she manages in with sharp focus; she creates moments of breathtaking ugliness, often when least expected...but also sometimes a longing that is touching and tender * Independent *
Both very weird and very good... Image by perfect image, we are led down into a mysterious and gripping universe, simultaneously beautiful and terrifying... From the opening sentences of Hotel Iris you know that every word will count and that every scene will be the occasion for strong and strange feeling * Times Literary Supplement *
To read Ogawa is to enter a dreamlike state tinged with a nightmare... She possesses an effortless, glassy, eerie brilliance * Guardian *
Precisely written, this dreamlike narrative expands into an ambiguous story of sexual dependency and damage. Ogawa's exact prose glitters as menacingly as the surrounding sea * Independent *
Exploring dark desires is something at which Ogawa has become disconcertingly adept * New York Times *
Ogawa explores the power of words to allure and destroy in this haiku-like fable of love contorted into obsession... A savage novel * Publishers Weekly *