Deon Meyer's latest thriller THIRTEEN HOURS and Monique Roffey's new memoir WITH THE KISSES OF HIS MOUTH both feature on the Independent's '50 best summer reads' list.
To view the full list of 50, please click here.
PRAISE FOR WITH THE KISSES OF HIS MOUTH
'Intelligent, dark, thorny but redemptive book about sex. Men, read it at your peril.' -- Robert Rowland Smith, author of BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES
'At last a book about female sexuality that isn't coy or vainglorious. With the Kisses of his Mouth is a fresh look at love, lust and longing in the 21st century. And it's funny too.' -- Daisy Goodwin
'From Craigslist to tantra classes, this is a heartbreaking and, at times, explicit memoir of rediscovery' -- Elle
'Less of Belle de Jour's lifestyle raunchiness and far more honesty about how sex feels - as opposed to how it looks…Roffey's writing soars when she's describing the intense grief she experienced at the end of the great love affair that prompted her journey…Roffey is both wise and moving when examining her desire for romance; her propensity for creation myths in relationships; and how her ex "had a talent for love"…Roffey asks serious questions about what place sex has in modern relationships, and is blessed with admirable honesty.' -- Alexandra Heminsley, Independent on Sunday
'Monique Roffey is an acclaimed fiction writer - her THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE was shortlisted for last year's Orange Prize. Her…honest, self-exposing new memoir…is about sex…and about far more - it's a candid exploration of the vulnerability of middle-age, as well as a fairly brutal examination of the human heart and its endless capacity to be broken…This book…is astoundingly brave. It is funny. It speeds along. It has magic at its heart - that indefinable sliver of human warmth and hope that all the best, most searching memoirs seem to have. Moreover, Roffey's somehow irrepressible willingness to share begins to seem generous, infectious even…I found myself knocked off course in a rather moving an indescribable way…she actually…makes a writerly choice to remain "blind" because "I wanted to turn the darkness in me into prose". Well, good. Because isn't that exactly what we need writers - the brightest, most adventurous and self-scrutinising ones, like…Roffey - to do: to take that same darkness and turn it into something so blazingly alive that it can shine a little light on the rest of us?' -- Julie Myerson, The Observer
PRAISE FOR THIRTEEN HOURS
'Deon Meyer is one of the unsung masters. THIRTEEN HOURS proves he should be on everyone's reading list. This book is great!' -- Michael Connelly
'THIRTEEN HOURS has breathtaking suspense, psychological understanding, and one of the most inspiring detectives ever. Deon Meyer deserves his international reputation.' -- Thomas Perry
'Try picking up THIRTEEN HOURS and setting it down. Try. You can't do it. I'm a pro, and I couldn't do it.' -- Don Winslow, author of THE POWER OF THE DOG and SAVAGES
'Best-selling South African novelist Meyer delivers another exciting if brutally violent crime novel. Expertly cutting away from the politicized police investigation to the plight of a terrified young girl literally running for her life, Meyer also steeps his novel in the day-to-day life of a country still reeling in the wake of radical transition.' -- Joanne Wilkinson, Starred Review, Atlantic Monthly
'What makes this novel so outstanding is its setting - the new South Africa, where jaded white detectives are still getting used to working with black and "coloured" (in the country's curious parlance) colleagues - and Meyer's superlative talent for suspense... Some of the best crime ¬fiction is rooted in contemporary events. Twenty years after the release of Nelson Mandela, South Africa remains a troubled place, and Meyer's novels give rare insights into the texture of everyday life. Above all, though, this is a vigorous, exciting novel that combines memorable characters and plot with edge-of-the-seat suspense.' -- Joan Smith, Sunday Times