Dreams of Rivers and Seas

The originality, power and sheer prolificacy of Parks’s production makes the work of his British contemporaries appear trite… His prose can be sparse and lucid, or almost manically convoluted, although beyond the fierce and questioning intelligence are both humour and artfully constructed and invariably gripping plots… In other words it’s a big, easily readable book - though with a solidly intellectual core - more than ripe for big prizes * Independent on Sunday *
A brave book…he shows with this novel, he intimately understands the Western condition, its complexity and fragility – Nirpal Dhaliwal * Evening Standard *
Enormously powerful… fiercely intelligent… a gripping and ambiguous novel * The Times *
A rapidly unfolding mystery that hints at suicide, murder and madness, and builds to a wrenching climax… haunting and accomplished… The finale is unexpected and terrifying * Guardian *
In the tradition of British writing about India, this novel is a rich, unexpected variation, and a considerable addition – Amit Chaudhuri * Financial Times *
This is a brilliant evocation of the teeming back streets and bazaars of Delhi and the gulf between Indian life and western logic * Eve *
With his constant switching of viewpoint, tense and emphasis, Parks, an extremely skilful storyteller, makes sure the novel’s intensity never falters * Irish Times *
An engaging story * Times Literary Supplement *
This probably won’t get within a bull’s roar of the Booker shortlist. It should.The complexities of Dreams of Rivers and Seas are not the product of contrivance, but simply those of experience * Sunday Herald *
A love story (or rather several love stories), an oblique and engrossing mystery, but above all a story about language and its limitations * Sunday Telegraph *

Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. In 1981 he moved to Italy where he has lived ever since. He is the author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, Cleaver, A Season with Verona and Teach Us to Sit Still. He has won the Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Llewellyn Rhys awards, and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lectures on literary translation in Milan, writes for publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and his many translations from the Italian include works by Moravia, Calvino, Calasso, Tabucchi and Machiavelli.

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