The Crossing

Told in his usual exquisite prose, the story centres on the strangely reticent character of Maud, who leaves the West Country after a tragedy and bravely attempts to single-handedly sail across the Atlantic. You know you're going to like a character when, in the first few pages, she falls 20ft in a boatyard, then gets up and tries to walk. Infused with nautical detail and the cool brine of the sea, this is perfect summer reading. -- Sarah Hall Observer We readers have a most fabulous time... The story of Tim's narcissism, self-deception and deception, and of the chiming treacheries of his friends and family, is rich and delicate enough to have sufficed for most contemporary novels...[the finale] guarantees that Maud, and questions about Maud, will linger in your mind long after you close this remarkable novel -- Kate Clanchy Guardian Hypnotic... Andrew Miller has a poet's ear but he can also write white-knuckle passages that will leave you winded by towering waves. Most surprising of all, you'll find yourself rooting for Maud as she confronts the limits of her own detachment Mail on Sunday Visceral and exquisitely written... few characters are so neutrally, impassively masterful. In her silence she is magnificent...the grand solitude of the sea passage, dialogue-free and with a punchy simplicity reminiscent of Hemingway, follows on beautifully from the judgment of those on land...Miller, wisely, hardly analyses Maud. But the portrayal of this practical, disconcerting figure is wildly emotional ***** The Lady Achieves a kind of hallucinatory strangeness, simultaneously intriguing and disturbing -- Alex Clark Spectator