From the Heart

Susan Hill's stylistic approach to writing is one of the stand-out features of this novel -- fast-paced and punchy, with an attention to detail that powerfully reflects Olive's inner turmoil ... her naivete, combined with her struggle to find contentment, is both poignant and hugely endearing -- Erin Bateman * Irish News * What Hill conveys beautifully is the agony of all that is left unsaid in relationships. It is, ultimately, a novel about love: about the dilemmas we face when we are not permitted to live in the way that we wish * Observer * From the Heart is a coming-of-age story that embeds different forms of recognition... It keeps you guessing to the end. Its heroine learns things, and so does the reader - the chief one being never to underrate Susan Hill -- David Grylls * Sunday Times * The novel is at times almost unbearably painful as Olive attempts to make sense of a world for which she has been poorly prepared... A short but stunning achievement -- Vanessa Berridge * Daily Express * A quietly shattering coming-of-age story set in the late Fifties and early Sixties ... Hill's storytelling is vivid, yet spare. From the Heart is a captivating portrait of a woman caught in the wrong era. This slender novel could be devoured in an afternoon, but it has an unsettling quality that will stay with the reader long after it is finished -- Violet Hudson * Daily Telegraph *