<b>Pure joy</b> – think Noël Coward shaken up with Ivy Compton-Burnett and garnished with a twist of Lemony Snicket

Mail on Sunday

DeWitt is in possession of a <b>fresh, lively voice that surprises at every turn</b>

- Kate Atkinson, author of 'Transcription',

My favourite book of his yet. The dialogue is <b>dizzyingly good</b>, the world so weird and fresh. <b>A triumph from a writer truly in the zone</b>

- Maria Semple, author of the bestselling 'Where’d You Go, Bernadette',

<b>Gloriously, acerbically funny and odd</b>

- Melissa Harrison,

<b>A sparkling dark comedy</b> ... DeWitt’s tone is <b>breezy, droll, and blithely transgressive</b> ... These are people you may not want to invite to dinner, but they sure make for fun reading

NPR

A thrilling madcap caper anchored by <b>memorable characters, emotional depth and forensically sharp writing</b>

- Hannah Rothschild, author of 'The Improbability of Love',

The first time I read <i>French Exit</i>, I raced through, impatient to know the fates of its characters. Then I turned back to page one to enjoy Patrick deWitt's <b>understated satire and casually brutal wit</b>

- Nell Zink, author of 'Mislaid' and 'The Wallcreeper',

A modern story, a satire about an insouciant widow on a quest for refined self-immolation .... DeWitt’s surrealism is cheerful and matter-of-fact, making the novel feel <b>as buoyantly insane as its characters</b> .... DeWitt is a stealth absurdist, with a flair for dressing up rhyme as reason

New Yorker

DeWitt is a promiscuous writer, flirting and subverting a different genre with each new novel. With <i>French Exit </i>he has served up <b>a wry, soufflé-light, European-style comedy</b> … A diverting oddball tale that <b>treads just the right line between bite and whimsy</b>

Metro

A Preston Sturges-esque satire on New York’s moneyed classes and the casual brutality of their emotional lives, with more than a whiff of <i>The Royal Tenenbaums</i> … Think Cary Grant’s uptight paleontologist trading barbs with Katharine Hepburn’s blithe heiress in <i>Bringing Up Baby</i><i>’</i>

Telegraph

<b>A breezily enjoyable social comedy</b> … Frances and Malcolm make for a memorable double act, with Frances in particular zinging out waspish one-liners

The Times

Patrick deWitt has taken all of what I usually expect and want from a story, misted it in Chanel No 5, and set to it an immeasurably classy lighter. Love it

- Natasha Pulley, bestselling author of 'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street',

Patrick deWitt is <b>an artful ventriloquist</b>: for each of his three novels he has deployed a distinctive and <b>utterly beguiling </b>voice

Metro

DeWitt is <b>a true original</b>, conjuring up dark and hilarious images

The Times

DeWittland is a place of <b>exaggerated, creeping horror</b>; a place populated by unfeeling characters who engage in bouts of baroque violence; above all a place <b>suffused with grim humour</b>. It's also <b>a place in which the limits of genre are explored</b>

Daily Telegraph

<b>Disarmingly funny</b> ... DeWitt can inject so much exposition with a single sentence that the reader seldom feels the need for elaboration … True to the theatrical form deWitt appears to have been inspired by, <i>French Exit </i>includes multiple layers of meaning and social commentary, wrapped up in <b>a whip-smart package that cracks with wit and wordplay</b>

Quill and Quire

From the author of th<b>e masterpiece of comic taciturnity <i>The Sisters Brothers</i>, <i>French Exit </i>is a “tragedy of manners” delivered with similar devastating wit and brilliance</b> … Combining Edward St Aubyn levels of social awfulness with a masterclass in understated absurdity, <b>any new deWitt novel should be a cause for a national holiday</b>, this one deserving champagne, fireworks and a marching band besides

Strong Words

If you liked <i>Where’d You Go, Bernadette? </i>by Maria Semple, you’ll love <b>the quirky characters and sharp humour</b> of <i>French Exit</i>

Good Housekeeping

<b>A highly enjoyable read</b> … deWitt’s style is nothing if not idiosyncratic, and his elevated language – played for particular comic effect when it comes to dialogue – is <b>perfectly suited to affectionately chiding upper-class mores</b> … The tenderness between Frances, her son and her old friend Joan is of the real stuff

Esquire

Frances and Malcolm are <b>terrific</b> characters, immediately arresting … The greatest achievement of <i>French Exit</i> however is the glamorous, formidable Frances; eccentric, highly intelligent, cold-blooded in both personal and business relationships, she's <b>as witty as any Evelyn Waugh mother</b> … A terrible tale of self-ruin more <b>akin to Gatsby or Patrick Melrose</b> than the Wodehouse or Mitford stories it initially conjures … Faintly comparable to Waugh's <i>A Handful of Dust</i>

Big Issue

If you like Paris, cats, dark humour and satire this is the book for you … With a unique cast of characters and an unusual relationships the book is both witty and warm

Living France