The Undertaking

Reviews / Votes

Sweeping, powerful, epic * The Times * 'Brutal but brilliant... Full of heart-pounding suspense... Magee offers an insight both into the deprivation experienced by ordinary soldiers and the excesses of those in power... An impressive, even stunning debut' * Sunday Times (Ireland) * An engaging and beautifully written novel, with an emotional resonance that remains long after you've closed the book. It succeeds in doing what only the best historical novels can do - making the past feel present * Independent * A novel made all the more harrowing by its extreme readability * Observer * A violent, elegant, unsentimental journey through hell and halfway back. This is an outstanding novel by a writer of huge talent and unusual candour. -- Chris Cleave The Undertaking is written with sympathy and skill. The narrative is tense and engaging, filled with complex undertones, impelled by an urgency and a deep involvement with the characters. -- Colm Toibin A bold and unsettling feat of empathy, all the more daring for its taut, beautifully understated style -- A.D. Miller