Mr. Peanut

Mr. Peanut is as ingenious as it is riveting

Richard Russo

Mr. Peanut crackles with life. Ross's long set pieces... reveal his talent for conjuring characters and imagining scenes that, like good short stories, could stand nobly by themselves

Harper’s Magazine

Mr. Peanut, the daring, arresting first novel by Adam Ross, an author of prodigious talent... the novel is an enormous success - forceful and involving, often deeply stirring and always impressively original... This is a brilliant, powerful, memorable book

Scott Turow, New York Times Book Review

The emotional language and perceptions of Mr. Peanut are extraordinary, and all the more so for their position within such a formally stylised novel ... it does entertain, inform and thoroughly delight

Rosalind Porter, Literary Review

This compulsive thriller works as a sharp satire on loneliness and partnership, and is a beautifully crafted, gripping read

Financial Times

An impressive first novel

Guardian

The most riveting look at the dark side of marriage since Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?... fascinating. It induced nightmares, at least in this reader. No mean feat

Stephen King

A perverse romance... deliciously clever, full of dark insight and even a touch of hope

The Economist

Ross is a sorcerer with words

New York Times

A riveting first novel... its greatest delight is the sheer brilliance of the writing, polished like marble so it moves without friction but wholly vivid and alive

Word

An ambitious and well-crafted noir that manages to humanise its characters while fashioning their stories into a gripping page-turner

Observer

Arresting first novel by Adam Ross, an author of prodigious talent'...This is a brilliant, powerful, memorable novel

Scotsman

A sharp and satirical thriller...this well-crafted debut novel is gripping from the start

Big Issue North

Ross' debut novel combines thriller and satire as he explores loneliness and marital difficulties in contemporary America

Paul Dunn, The Times

Adam Ross has crafted a diabolically intricate novel, one that presents all the pleasures and challenges of a well-wrought Sudoku puzzle. There's a whiff of alchemy to the book; you can't quite believe that its many pieces fit together so snugly. Yet they do. Once you've finished, you run your eye back and forth and up and down, and every way you look it adds up. Mr. Peanut is smart, funny, gripping and - in its ultimate unravelling - sneakily sad

Scott Smith