Carry The One

Her deftly episodic novel of love, time and off-beat family life is warm, generous and wise. An enormously engaging novel

Daily Mail

Carry The One is a finely crafted novel, full of phrases you want to cut out and keep, and characters you think you know. It is delicate in its touch, yet huge in its reach

Observer

Superb . . . Anshaw sees her characters with startling clarity, an acute alertness to nuance, and no small helping of warmth and humour . . . Anshaw's writing [is] subtle, bemused, kind and smart, she nails moment after moment . . . Carry The One is a marvellous novel, grown-up, smart and emotionally intelligent about people who, like the rest of us, try but mostly fail to keep their ducks in a row

Patrick Ness, Guardian

A tender tale of what happens to ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances

Marie Claire

Here's passion and addiction, guilt and damage, all the beautiful mess of family life. Carry the One will lift readers off their feet and bear them along on its eloquent tide

Emma Donoghue

Beautifully observed . . . [Anshaw] intimately dissects how one event or choice can alter the trajectory of a life, how a fork in the road can lead to wholly unexpected and divergent outcomes

Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

A funny, vivid and pingingly true story about longing and the pain of love. Anshaw conveys beefy emotions and life-changing events with the most gossamer of touches

Rachel Johnson, Vogue

Anshaw's understated, casual tone is made delightful with small details.Vivid images hit home with finishing flourishes . . . Carry The One is an engaging narrative, eloquently told

FT

Carol Anshaw is one of those authors who should be a household name . . . [a] fine, eloquent novel

USA Today

Superb . . . [Anshaw] has a knack for capturing a personality in a single phrase

Financial Times

Moving and engaging . . . Anshaw has written not only a funny, smart and closely observed story, but also one that explores the way tragedy can follow hard on celebration, binding people together even more lastingly than passion.

Sylvia Brownrigg, The New York Times Book Review

Words used to praise Anshaw's earlier novels - witty, warm, intimate, poignant - apply equally well to her most compelling book yet, a wholly seductive tale of siblings, addiction, conviction, and genius . . . Masterful in her authenticity, quicksilver dialogue, wise humour, and receptivity to mystery, Anshaw has created a deft and transfixing novel of fallibility and quiet glory

Booklist

A brilliant feat of storytelling . . . one of the most intensely vibrant novels I've ever read

Boston Globe

Funny, touching, knowing . . . a quiet, lovely, genuine accomplishment

Publishers Weekly

Splendid . . . sits somewhere between a Jonathan Franzen novel and a collection of haiku

Entertainment Weekly

Anshaw is that rare, brilliant, witty writer whose prose is rich and buttery, and whose plotting is as well-conceived and seamlessly executed as that of the most intricate thriller

Chicago Tribune

If you love Jonathan Franzen, you'll love this compelling book

Entertainment Weekly

Graceful and compassionate . . . Writing with rueful wit and a subtle understanding of the currents and passions that rule us, Anshaw demonstrates that struggling to do one's best, whatever the circumstances, makes for a life of consequence

People

A fine novel . . . stunning . . . wise

TLS

Anshaw submerges the reader in gorgeous detail

Independent

Carol Anshaw's writing is cool and funny, outraged and sympathetic by turns. The book is full of sharp observations and memorable phrases

Literary Review

Beautiful prose

Independent on Sunday

A series of beautifully detailed snapshots . . . an arresting examination of three intersecting lives, forcefully told

Telegraph