Karoo

In this second novel Steve Tesich has created an anti-hero as appealing as any dreamt up by Philip Roth or Saul Bellow

Independent

Karoo is a very good and very funny novel of the old-fashioned American kind, the tragi-comic story - familiar from Philip Roth and JP Donleavy - of a selfish but vulnerable and oddly lovable monster whose own shortcomings don't disqualify him from saying some sharp things about the hypocrisies of the allegedly better-balanced types who despise him

Herald

Adulterous alcoholic and pathological liar, it is, nevertheless, hard not to love Karoo, whose sardonic observations are both poignant and extremely funny. This is comic writing at its best. Clever, well crafted and proof that Tesich was master of the medium

The Times

Brilliantly funny in its early chapters, but also very wise, the virtuosic irony turns to bitterness as a tragic story develops. Tesich died just after completing this marvellous, heart-felt valediction.

Scotland on Sunday

A sad novel with a jaunty, upbeat tone that disguises the tragedy of Tesich's magnetic characters

Observer

Scathing, hilarious and glorious

New York Times Book Review

Utterly wonderful... This novel does supremely what novels were invented to do - it confronts the most unbearable sadness with a comic exhilaration that makes you almost pleased that life is tragic

Howard Jacobson

Mordantly funny, unexpectedly moving and brutally honest about the business of making movies

Richard E Grant

Fascinating. A real satiric invention, loaded with wise outrage

Arthur Miller

Terrific. Nakedly honest, a tour de force of self-destruction. As Saul spirals into free-fall we're with him all the way, because he's so furiously funny

Deborah Moggach

Karoo has all the ingredients of a truly great novel. Its plot has the pathos of a Greek tragedy and enough twists and turns to satisfy the most avid Raymond Chandler fan. The characters come alive as soon as they appear on the page. Fantastic

Literary Review