Vinegar Girl

Everyone from Margaret Atwood to Howard Jacobson is reimagining Shakespeare in fiction this year. Tyler’s take on The Taming of the Shrew looks to be the highlight

Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times

I loved Kate and Pyotr and the way they discover the oversized, tender, irreverent relationship that fits them... It is joyful

Rachel Joyce

Takes Shakespeare’s comedy…into contemporary life with compelling effect.

Country & Town House

Enjoy this wry, wise, hilarious take on the relations between men and women, and Tyler’s loving feminism untinged with bitterness

Jane O’Grady, The Oldie

The terrifically talented author is the latest to tackle Shakespeare for the Hogarth series ... In her modern take on The Taming of the Shrew, Kate is a university drop-out whose scientist dad is pushing her to marry his lab assistant so he can stay in the country. But will this bright, independent woman sacrifice herself? Like the original, the heroine is pleasingly acerbic and her happy ending is anything but conventional

Good Housekeeping

Tyler is uniquely capable of handling a rebarbative character like Kate with generosity and imagination ... she consistently finds good in unpromising people and is a sharp and very funny observer of day-to-day life. [...] A joy

Elspeth Barker, Literary Review

The worst wedding in history ... vintage Anne Tyler

Ann Treneman, The Times

A new Anne Tyler book is always a treat. The terrifically talented author is the latest to tackle Shakespeare…and our favourite so far.

Good Housekeeping

It's knockabout comedy at its best, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny and, indeed, may be her funniest book to date

John Harding, Daily Mail

This sparky, intelligent spin on Shakespeare's controversial classic demolishes the old saw that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar

Elizabeth Lowry, The Guardian

Excellent

Glamour

There is much of Tyler's trademark wit and sharp observation here. She shifts effortlessly from humour to pathos and creates emotion without any hint of sentimentality ... Funny and poignant

Charlotte Heathcote, Sunday Express

Funny, thought-provoking, essential

The Sunday Telegraph (Stella)

Fun, accomplished, readable, enjoyable

Viv Groskop, The Guardian

A joy to experience.

Elspeth Barker, Literary Review

Hilarious contemporary take on the play.

Frankie McCoy, Evening Standard

An enjoyable read and it’s always a pleasure to read her writing.

Woman's Way

Vinegar Girl is an absorbing read from the very first page, where the characters immediately come to life

Daisy Watt

A sweet love story… The conversations are the best bits.

Claire Harman, Evening Standard

A reflective, engaging twist on Shakespeare’s unfashionable play

Vanessa Berridge, Daily Express

Tyler’s talents are lavish, and the novel has plenty of incidental pleasures.

James Walton, Daily Telegraph

Delightful, ingenious and convincing… Anyone who values good writing and the intelligent observation and depiction of how people feel, think and speak will enjoy it too

Allan Massie, Scotsman

Tyler's deepest purpose is to challenge the premisses of Shakspeare's comedy... Her gentle, funny novel insists that it is possible, in spite of our customarily blind perversities, to find unexpected ways of breaking free from self-destruction

Dinah Birch, Times Literary Supplement

A fascinating take on humanity, with plenty of amusing, unexpected twists in the tale that only a brilliant writer such as Anne Tyler can achieve

Candis

We love Anne Tyler and this book is as brilliant as you’d expect. Perfect for a long journey – you won’t look up from it.

A Little Bird

[A] screwball comedy of manners that actually channels Jane Austen more than Shakespeare. It's clear that [Tyler] had fun with Vinegar Girl, and readers will too… A fizzy cocktail of a romantic comedy, far more sweet than acidic, about finding a mate who appreciates you for your idiosyncratic, principled self – no taming necessary

NPR.org

Family drama meets rom-com in a modern version of The Taming of the Shrew. Pushy dad plus entitled little sister, cute but clueless suitor, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author equals must-read

Cosmopolitan

Fabulous... Tyler has fun exploring how far a modern woman would go for the sake of daughterly duty

Saga Magazine

It's every subtle shade of funny, heart-breaking and ultimately life-affirming

Grazia

Tyler’s signature skill as a novelist is portraying her characters and her setting with such precise and amusing detail … that pretty soon the reader is drawn in, willy-nilly. We know where this is heading, yet she does a great job putting up the roadblocks and incorporating the surprising curves… Novels such as Anne Tyler’s, which are so precise and current, are like photographs or digital clock faces that tell us where we are and where we are coming from at the same time. ‘Vinegar Girl’ is an earthy reflection of this fleeting moment, both lively and thoughtful.

Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review

Full of Tyler's signature virtues -- domestic details, familial conflict, emotional ambivalence, a sharp sense of place… Novels such as Anne Tyler’s, which are so precise and current, are like photographs or digital clock faces that tell us where we are and where we are coming from at the same time. Vinegar Girl is an earthy reflection of this fleeting moment, both lively and thoughtful

Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review

Beautiful, off-beat love story…I became enraptured by their seemingly little lives. It’s every subtle shade of funny, heart-breaking and ultimately life-affirming… Gentle, heart-warming tale

Lisa Howard, Emily Phillips, Jenny Croall, Grazia

Gripping. This is typical Tyler territory. It is a domestic drama, with eccentric characters, which is deeper than it first appears. I loved it

Ann Smout, Nudge

With her sharp eye for family dynamics and telling domestic detail, Pultizer winning Tyler is the perfect match for The Taming of the Shrew… With Tyler’s typical warmth and humour, and her knack for creating endearingly quirky characters, the result is believable, moving and entertaining.

Lady

The funniest book she has written, much funnier than Shakespeare

Spectator, Book of the Year

A sprightly reprise of [The Taming of the Shrew].

Eithne Farry, Simple Things, Book of the Year

Entertaining and Unpredictable.

Irish Mail on Sunday, Book of the Year

A sweetly rendered, thoroughly modern love story.

Guardian, Book of the Year

Acutely observed and warmly entertaining.

William Leith, Evening Standard

Warmly entertaining

i

A bittersweet comedy with some stinging contemporary resonance… Acutely observed and quirkily humorous… light but intelligent.

Juanita Coulson, Lady

With Tyler’s typical warmth and humour, and her knack for creating endearingly quirky characters, the result is believable, moving and entertaining.

The Lady