A Small Revolution in Germany

Praise for A Small Revolution in Germany: ‘In A Small Revolution in Germany – a meditation on youth and constancy and reinvention – Philip Hensher has coalesced all the craft, skill, wit and intelligence of his previous work into something which is dazzling but also deeply thought and deeply felt. I just loved it’ Linda Grant ‘He brilliantly animates the lives of neglected people during big historical events.’ The Times, Thomas Adès ‘Hensher’s quietly brilliant novel opens in the Eighties and spans some 30 years, illuminating an entire social world with skill, humour and tenderness.’ Daily Mail, Max Davidson ‘Moments of sharp observation’ The Times, Alexander Nurnberg ‘On the one hand, he is writing the type of novel whose atmosphere relies for its attack on a certain amount of self-conscious cultural signalling. On the other, he is embarked on the kind of fictional high-wire act that both emphasizes and undermines the seriousness with which the people he writes about need to be taken…Rather like Mary Gaitskill, he specializes in extending sympathy to his creations and then suddenly withdrawing it, giving them enough rope to hang themselves with … some wonderful moments of off-kilter comedy’ TLS, D.J. Taylor ‘A beautiful, regret-soaked story about the marks left on our adult lives by the idealism of our youth’ Alex Preston, Observer ‘The novel moves easily between Thatcherite Britain and the present…. This book is bound to be seen as a satire on the left. But in fact its keynote is a deep anger and disillusionment with politics, a lack of faith in all systems…Positioning his story within the frame of current events is a clever move on Hensher’s part’ Elizabeth Lowry, Guardian ‘Hensher’s novel reads easily and has a controlled, rueful atmosphere  - a cautionary tale’ John Maier, The Times