Fragile Monsters

A brilliant novel about homecoming and the layered, unstable past that haunts and hurts . . . I admire it enormously

Colm Tóibín

An impressive debut, atmospheric and unsettling

Telegraph, 5 stars

A striking debut . . . A bold, interesting novel . . . I'm excited to see what Menon comes up with next

Sunday Times

A bravura debut novel . . . It's clever, satisfying, and often playful

Guardian

This is a book saturated with the sensations of southeast Asia; where, in Menon's pungent turns of phrase, you feel as though you could "grab the air in two hands and wring it out"; where guilt can be "squatting in the room . . . stringy as spit", and where tiger princes and jungle spirits lurk amid a painful colonial past

The Times, pick of the latest fiction

A rich and moving family history takes shape, filled with love and heartache, guilt and grief, and no end of secrets and lies . . . Gripping, compelling . . . Menon's story shows that, though time flows on, history's waves still ripple decades downstream

Economist

Menon is a sparky storyteller whose thickly atmospheric debut keeps us guessing as its many ghosts press in ever closer

Daily Mail

A beautiful, richly textured absorbing read. I was utterly transported

Irenosen Okojie

A propulsive debut scattered with gems of fresh and surprising imagery. Menon is at her best exploring the intricate bond between women over generations, their histories strung tight over the fraught realities of a nation coming into being

Preti Taneja