Written in haunting, spare, shimmering prose...punctuated by acts of casual violence and vindictive spite. Profoundly unsettling, magnificently written and instantly memorable, these stories vindicate [ Ogawa's] status as one of Japan's greatest living writers * Guardian * Yoko Ogawa's British debut is inexcusably belated....Ogawa is a conspicuously gifted writer... Not a word is wasted, yet each resonates with a blend of poetry and tension... mesmerising... To read Ogawa is to enter a dreamlike state tinged with a nightmare, and her stories continue to haunt. She possesses an effortless, glassy, eerie brilliance. She should be discovered in Britain, and this book must surely begin the process * Guardian * The three Japanese novellas in The Diving Pool are both creepy and disturbingly lovely...spine-tingling uncertainty surfaces throughout the haunting prose * Dazed & Confused * A fine collection of three queasily unsettling novellas... She invests the most seemingly banal domestic situations with a chilling and malevolent sense of perversity, marking her out as a master of subtle psychological horror * Daily Telegraph * An intriguing trilogy of exquisitely sketched stories... Elegant, intelligent, quietly disturbing * Financial Times * Original, elegant, very disturbing... on the edge of the unspeakable A welcome introduction to an author whose suggestive, unsettling storytelling speaks volumes by leaving things unsaid * Independent * Hard not to finish in one go, Yoko Ogawa's stories are perfect for spooky bedtime reading - and not-so-sweet dreams * Big Issue * Polished, original and strange. She reveals humour, menace, and humanity in a quietly explosive book * Irish Times * Her combination of the strange with the visceral elegantly conveys silent inner worlds of misery and pain * Metro *
