The Morningside

Reviews / Votes

With elements of folklore and magic realism, this novel contends with interesting philosophical questions such as the relationship between superstition, guilt and grief. It is also a moving exploration of the immigrant's tale whereby the daughter must instruct her mother in their new world. An accomplished novel -- Brigid O'Dea * Irish Times * Magic realism and dystopian sci-fi infuse a powerfully imagined tale of exile, belonging and, ultimately, hope -- Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday * Dystopian fiction at its most unnervingly captivating - submerged highways, tree-colonised train tracks, wheeling flocks of urban cranes. But this is also an increasingly serious look at the future, both unimaginable and all too near at hand, where reasons to be hopeful are hard to come by - and yet where humanity continues to find a way -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail * In a not-too-distant future, a young girl called Silvia becomes obsessed with an enigmatic older woman. The author of The Tiger's Wife, which won The Orange prize for Fiction in 2011, has done it again with this rich, dreamlike novel * i paper * This novel is an ingenious, inventive coming-of-age story. Very moving with a mystery at its heart -- Adele Parks * Platinum * I marveled at the subtle beauty and precision of Obreht's prose. . . Read in the context of today's conflicts and injustices, climate emergencies, and political and racial divisions - together more dystopian than any dystopian novel - the book surprised me most with its undercurrent of hope -- Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers * The New York Times (Editors' Choice) * The Morningside is like nothing I've read - at once playful and profound, harrowing and tender, a sparklingly original story of coming of age in a broken world -- Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Dreamers Imagine a Ballardian dystopia injected with a double dose of magic realism, so that the pages seem to glow. . . . An ideal novel in which all is invented and everything is true. I loved it -- Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams Obreht is such an expert and generous storyteller, infusing The Morningside with the pleasures of folklore and fairy tale while simultaneously diving deep into the silences and irreconcilable contradictions in the stories we inherit about the past -- Karen Russell, author of Orange World and Other Stories This touching and inventive novel follows a young woman searching for meaning and belonging, both through her loving aunt's stories and the enigmatic resident of the building's penthouse suite * Oprah Daily * As in her previous richly imagined and profoundly insightful novels . . . Obreht writes at the crossroads of myth and history, but here with a twist as she envisions a catastrophic tomorrow in which rampaging forces of nature and human atrocities intensify in impact and scope. . . . A bewitchingly atmospheric, psychologically lush, and deeply knowing tale of ancient sorrows and coalescing crises, courage and fortitude * Booklist (starred review) * Obreht is offering a cautionary vision of what our future might look like, but she's also asking questions that are as old as storytelling. What do we want to tell ourselves about ourselves? What do we try to hide from ourselves? And what's the cost of our lives? * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * Fresh and immensely gripping, The Morningside is a rich saga of migration and the search for belonging, bravely imagining our capacity for survival and love in an uncertain future. . . . A stunning achievement -- Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness Like all of Obreht's work, The Morningside is filled with tiny moments of acute observation and beautiful writing that will make you stop and gasp . . . you'll be thinking about it all long after you've finished reading. A magical, special book by one of our best working novelists * Lit Hub * I marveled at the subtle beauty and precision of Obreht's prose. . . Read in the context of today's conflicts and injustices, climate emergencies, and political and racial divisions-together more dystopian than any dystopian novel-the book surprised me most with its undercurrent of hope -- Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers * The New York Times (Editors' Choice) * Obreht is a novelist of great skill and warmth, for whom the ancient forms of storytelling - folk tales, myths and legends - retain all their capacity to explain and mystify, soothe and terrify . . . Though The Morningside could be called dystopian, to this reader it feels hopeful in the way it imagines the near future . . . more about the ways we pull together than the ways we fall apart * Guardian * The dreamlike novel draws on elements of folklore and fairy tales for a narrative set eerily close to present day that explores environmental collapse and human resilience * Time *