'Heartbreaking? Certainly. Staggering? Yes, I'd say so. And if genius is capturing the universal in a fresh and memorable way, call it that too' - Anthony Quinn, "Sunday Times".

'Is this how all orphans would speak - 'I am at once pitiful and monstrous, I know' - if they had Dave Eggers' prodigious linguistic gifts. For he does write wonderfully, and this is an extremely impressive debut' - John Banville, "Irish Times".

'A virtuosic piece of writing, a big, daring, manic-depressive stew of a book that noisily announces the debut of a talented - yes, staggeringly talented - new writer' - Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times".

'Exhilarating ...Profoundly moving, occasionally angry and often hilarious ..."A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is, finally, a finite book of jest, which is why it succeeds so brilliantly' - "New York Times Book Review".

'What is really shocking and exciting is the book's sheer rage. Ahwosg is truly ferocious, like any work of genius.