'[Yuji] is a character so well realised as to engage all of our sympathies' -- Peter Carty, Independent 'A revelatory perspective on an Eastern city in the second world war ...The prose is as delicate as a Japanese print' -- David Grylls, Sunday Times 20081020 'Not only does he combine delicious literary conceits with thought-provoking explorations into the human condition, he has the rare gift of tossing out perfect sentences that make you stop in your tracks' -- Claire Allfree, Metro 20081020 'Miller's delicate prose most closely recalls the tone of emotional restraint in Kazuo Ishiguro's early novels ... Crisply defined characters offer a foil to Yuji's progressive ruminations, which Miller deftly coheres into a typically bittersweet resolution.' -- James Urquhart, Independent on Sunday 20081020 'The frank simplicity of Miller's prose, and his search for truth in the reality of the quotidian feels (to this Western reader) convincingly Japanese. Miller places his words and plot developments carefully, like the smooth grey pebbles of a Zen garden, with all but the most essential adjectives weathered away. There are moments of beauty, truth and irony.' -- Helen Brown, Daily Telegraph 20081020 'Deeply moving, written with loving attention to language, it felt like Pasternak back from the dead.' -- Tom Adair, Scotsman 20081020 'Detail by delicate detail Miller conjures Yuji's dim, mysterious world of gradual dissolution." -- Natalie Sandison, The Times 20080913 'Miller's Japanese characters are densely believable, and his recreation of their world is a real achievement' -- Christopher Tayler, Guardian 20080913 'Miller's writing is cinematic; it has a heightened visual sense and it shifts smoothly from dialogue to mood to location. At all times the author is in command' -- TLS 20081009