A Ladder to the Sky

A deliciously dark tale of ambition, seduction and literary theft . . . compelling and terrifying, powerful and intensely unsettling. In Maurice Swift, Boyne has given us an unforgettable protagonist, dangerous and irresistible in equal measure. The result is an ingeniously conceived novel that confirms Boyne as one of the most assured writers of his generation.

Hannah Beckerman, Observer

Maurice Swift, the novelist protagonist of John Boyne’s A Ladder to the Sky, is a bookish version of Patricia Highsmith’s psychopathic antihero Tom Ripley.

The Times

A dark morality tale in the mould of Patricia Highsmith . . . consistently intriguing

Daily Mail

Everything the wonderful Irish novelist John Boyne writes is special . . . a highly entertaining read

Jake Kerridge, S Magazine, Sunday Express

Gripping . . . John Boyne is a master storyteller and fans will doubtless be captivated by this chilling and darkly comic tale of unrelenting ambition

Daily Express

Boyne delivers a perfect balance of pace and detail to keep you gripped throughout

i Newspaper

Maurice Swift is a literary Tom Ripley . . . a first-class page turner

Guardian

It charts the rise of Maurice Swift, as cold and manipulative a character as you’re likely to meet this year . . . the story takes an ever darkening series of twists and turns

Express

‘A Ladder to the Sky is endlessness inventive and wickedly funny. Boyne’s irredeemable antihero holds up a brutally well lit mirror to every writer who has ever wondered what they need to do to do that little better...’

Patrick Gale, Author of A Place Called Winter

Beware reading this in public: Boyne’s prose inspires such a collision of laughing and wincing that you’re likely to seem a little unbalanced

Washington Post

Maliciously witty, erudite and ingeniously constructed

NPR

Clever, chilling and beautifully paced, a study of inner corrosion that Patricia Highsmith could not have done better

The Times