NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE is the author of The Vision of Elena Silves (1989), winner of the Somerset Maugham Award. His other novels include The High Flyer, for which he was nominated for the Grants list in 1993 and The Dancer Upstairs which was chosen by the American Libraries Association as the best novel of 1997. In 1999 his biography, Bruce Chatwin, was published to great critical acclaim.
Shakespeare is interested in grand themes: love, vocation, politics and the corrupting power of moral and ideological absolutes... The Dancer Upstairs will be enjoyed by any kind of reader... It is enviably good, a genuinely fine novel from a writer who possesses real heart and flair -- Louis de Bernières * Sunday Times * Almost steams with the author's understanding of South America and yet is somehow poetic and tender * Observer * Will count among the best work being produced by the present generation of British writers * Independent on Sunday * As cracking a story as any yarn, as informed as any journalism, and delivered with firmness and urgency * The Times * In addition to being a satisfyingly rich tale or romance this is a highly intelligent examination of Peruvian - and South American - reality... Funny and devastating... I was riveted by this superb novel * New Statesman *