The Porcupine

“Wonderfully agile … the provocations are as numerous as the title indicates…. [Barnes] is witty and telling and may not be outracing events by a great deal.” —Los Angeles Times

“Barnes’s novels have a mesmeric charm and an air of dangerous simplicity…. [He is] an exceptionally accomplished and ingenious stylist.” —The New York Review of Books

“Gripping … Barnes relates this compelling story with his usual narrative brio, sketching his characters with the broad, colorful strokes of a mythic allegory.” —The New York Times

“The Porcupine is a work of power…. Barnes has woven a rich tapestry of life in a post-communist country…. [He] provides a shock befitting a master storyteller and irony worthy of a philosopher.” —Chicago Tribune

“Barnes is a fluent novelist, clever and richly inventive…. The Porcupine could hardly be more up to date.” —Vanity Fair

“With the artful framework of testimony, internal monologue and chorus, Barnes’s imagery is spare but vivid…. The central characters … are cunningly defined by their ambiguities…. [He is] brilliant.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“One of England’s most interesting and provocative novelists … Barnes … display[s] a remarkable versatility, a dashing wit, and a sense of irony that keeps his wonderfully idiosyncratic creations under tight control.” —New Republic

“Absolutely brilliant and full of amazing possibilities.” —Dallas Morning News

“Barnes is a dazzling mind in mercurial flight.” —Philadelphia Inquirer