Box Hill

Reviews / Votes

'The biggest small book of the year.'

- John Self, Guardian 'An exquisitely discomfiting tale of a submissive same-sex relationship ... perfectly realised.'

- Anthony Cummins, Observer 'I very much enjoyed Box Hill. It is a characteristic Mars-Jones mixture of the shocking, the endearing, the funny and the sad, with an unforgettable narrator. The sociological detail is as ever acutely entertaining.'

- Margaret Drabble 'Adam Mars-Jones has never needed to write at great length to convince readers of his talent.... Mars-Jones's latest work is a sliver of a novel that provides ample evidence of his prowess.... Box Hill is not a novel for the prudish, but it is a masterclass in authorial control.... Despite its diminutive length, it is rich with detail and complexity, and has plenty to demonstrate Mars-Jones's well-deserved place on any list of our best.'

- Alex Nurnberg, Sunday Times 'A clever and subtle novel.'

- Max Liu, Financial Times 'The very best novel of the year was Adam Mars-Jones's complex, shifting and sensationally lewd Box Hill - for once in 2020 a novel written not to make an approved point or demonstrate its author's virtue but to explore calmly the wildest stretches of human behaviour. Its subject is cruelty, both theatrically performed and executed in reality, without costumes. A masterpiece that Dame Ivy would have been greatly interested by.'

- Phillip Hensher, Spectator