Paul

Reviews / Votes

A brilliantly unsettling debut about male power and female passivity -- Editor's Choice, August fiction * Bookseller * A work of dark, shimmering genius, which explores the toxicity of patriarchy with excoriating intelligence, verve and originality -- Rebecca Tamas, author of WITCH I cherished this moreish, dreamy, hazy novel... I know I will return many times to inhabit the world Lafarge has written so exquisitely -- Megan Nolan As unsettling as it is captivating, Paul is a brilliantly subtle excavation of a toxic relationship -- Mark O'Connell Daisy Lafarge brings the same scientific rigour and startling intelligence that so distinguish her poetry to this taut and lyrical novel -- Chloe Aridjis Daisy Lafarge excels at portraying the untethered, unnerving stage of life most of us know intimately; that moment between the unravelling and its aftermath... A hauntingly moving book -- Kerri ni Dochartaigh Lafarge has written a book that feels intimate and epic, gives pleasure even as it makes pleasure the site of loss: "the limit of everything" -- Bhanu Kapil [A] tense debut from an acclaimed poet... a compellingly creepy study of psychosexual power dynamics that doubles as a shrewd portrait of drifting millennial womanhood * Daily Mail * Lafarge is one to watch if this dazzling debut is anything to go by... cinematic * Good Housekeeping * Arresting... a creeping sense of claustrophobia that expands with such overbearing stealth, it practically becomes a character in itself... a white-knuckle ride not because of any attendant thrills and spills but because the tension is perpetually on the brink of boiling, and then boiling over * i paper * Paul has a neat, intuitive structure... Its plot is light and fast-moving... [a] beautifully constructed novel -- Lamorna Ash * Guardian * Crisp and elegant, the sentences both vivid and precise... With an intelligence lightly worn, this is an immersive, maddening, unsettling read -- Sean Hewitt * Irish Times * Lafarge's writing really shines... Essentially a novel about a toxic relationship, Paul's many layers of imbalance cover language and voice, complicity, age, and life experience * Evening Standard * Hypnotic... A formidable and heady novel * The Fountain * Carefully structured and at times an uncomfortable read, the book has shades of Sally Rooney's hit novels Normal People and Conversations With Friends. Just as it feels that Frances will not be able to escape Paul's hold on her, Lafarge offers a sliver of hope for the fight against the patriarchy * Scotland on Sunday * It's beautifully written, Lafarge's well-observed exploration of the power disparity between the pair [is] deepened and textured by intricate, allusive shades of meaning * Herald * Enviably, coolly intelligent without ever becoming ironic or snide -- Megan Nolan