"An impressive work from a leading Dutch writer." Daily Mail "Translated with insight and empathy by Laura Watkinson, this is an intriguing and intricate gem of a novel." Lancashire Evening Post "Inevitably, the Pamplona festival evokes Ernest Hemingway. Van Mersbergen avoids Hemingway's contagious style with dexterity. Instead, he parodies Hemingway's rather limited ideas on how a man of action should live." The Independent "As he tracks back and forth between the dual narratives, moving inexorably to the double climax, van Mersbergen skilfully builds emotional intensity until the point when the boxer and bulls' fury are finally unleashed." Independent on Sunday