Darling

"India is reliably funny in everything she writes. There’s pleasure in her voice, and her love of these characters which you can share and revel in. The other special thing is her relationship with the original material; if you’ve got something predicated upon another book, you must look very carefully at what they are bringing, what’s innovative and new and dynamic between the new book and the classic. And India lands it completely. It reminds me in some ways of what Julian Barnes did with Flaubert’s Parrot . There’s such a sweet conversation between India and The Pursuit of Love , and the book is doubly pleasurable for that. It’s such a joy. India draws a careful line between homage and appreciation, and also creating something that’s absolutely new. Literature is full of rewrites, adaptations, and the re-spinning of old tales. If you’ve never read The Pursuit of Love , you can still really like Darling . It’s just another level of appreciation you could bring to it."