"The stories are effortlessly wonderful. The essays are more chewy--what one imagines Milan Kundera might sound like before his first cup of coffee. . . . [Nádas] has Lawrence's symbolic facility without his thumping self-consciousness, and an endless tenderness for the detail of overlooked lives. . . . Every story here reminds us that fiction can tell the truth as well as nonfiction--or even better."--The New York Times Book Review

"[Nádas] has quickly been canonized as a latter-day Eastern European Proust or Mann. . . . This gently chaotic and revealing scrapbook is a must-have for serious European literature collections."--Booklist

"Highly recommended . . . Nádas gives readers page after page of thought-provoking and deeply insightful intellectual enjoyment as well as a soul-baring glimpse into his internal struggles with such issues as capital punishment, depression, writing, religion, and fate. . . . Readers will be drawn into the very private lives of his characters, investing themselves in their every word and deed."--Library Journal