Selected as one of the "Best Books of 2008" by
The Washington Post Book World and
The Boston Globe!
"Like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird and Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, young Lawrence brings readers into his world, powerfully connecting us to the drama of his childhood.”
–Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides and Beach Music
“I fell in love with Lawrence, an unusually touching and convincing child protagonist. Kneale’s astonishingly observant, humane writing is heartbreaking.”
–Charlotte Mendelson, author of When We Were Bad
“Think of the delicate balancing act involved in creating a child narrator–a 9-year-old, say, with a single mother and a baby sister. The boy has to be cute, of course, and also wise in unexpected ways, fragile, protective, funny, solemn and, well, childlike. Matthew Kneale achieves all that brilliantly in When We Were Romans, then gives it another turn of the screw.... [T]he scary truth…is that it’s our valiant young narrator who needs protecting.”
–The New York Observer
“How much Lawrence understands of his family’s tribulations is the book’s central, poignant mystery; the consummate artistry with which Kneale captures this child’s voice, its chief pleasure.”
–Entertainment Weekly
“The journey through Lawrence’s complex mind is touching and delightful, mostly because he is such an unswerving authentic little boy…. His voice is a voice to remember.”
–The Seattle Times
“If you enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, definitely pick up When We Were Romans. It will make you thank God for children in a world made absurd by adults.”
–St. Petersbusrg Times
“Irreverent and ingeious.”
-The Boston Globe
“There have been plenty of coming-of-age stories that pit a child’s innocence against the inexorable force of a parent’s insanity, but perhaps none that has captured the tension, confusion and ultimate loss of that innocence any better than When We Were Romans.”
–Bookpage
“Lawrence is a narrator extraordinaire.”
–The Christian Science Monitor
“Matthew Kneale is an extraordinary British writer whose new novel is easy to admire because of its artistry…. The quality that sets Kneale apart is his talent for impersonation…. As Lawrence describes it, [his and his mum's] 'adventure' is an attempt to flee the vaguely articulated menace posed by Lawrence's estranged father…. Their enemies might be real or they might be imagined, but what's absolutely true for Lawrence is his unshakable belief in the conspiracy of his and his mother's love. 'Conspire' means 'to breathe together,' and so he does with Mum, and so we do with him.”
-Washington Post Book World
“This is the novel that Patrick McCabe’s over-praised the Butcher Boy ought to have been, redeemed by Kneale’s sure-handed restraint. One of the best explorations of a child’s mind and heart in recent fiction, and its talented author’s best book yet.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Kneale, who won the Whitbread for English Passengers, returns with a tale narrated by fiery, precocious, pitch-perfect Lawrence, who at nine years old struggles with being at once a normal kid and, with his parents’ estrangement, the man of the house.... As small incongruities pile up between what Lawrence sees and how he interprets what happens to him, the family’s hurtlings across Europe and the city take on a shattered poignancy.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] haunting story of a family in disintegration.... Kneale has created a marvelously engaging and believable voice for Lawrence, whose account is at once heartbreaking and humorous.... Idiosyncratic, original, and altogether memorable.”
–Booklist (starred review)
“This narrative is heartbreakingly moving.... Full of restraint and artistic integrity, this is a poignant, haunting and lovely novel.”
–The Guardian
“[Lawrence] is the literary first cousin of Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clarke.... The heartbreak and triumph of When We Were Romans is that little Lawrence is the real thing.”
–Literary Review
“Matthew Kneale’s lovely novel...is narrated by Lawrence with insight, humour and sweetly erratic spelling: it halts and splutters in rhythm with the children’s whims and tantrums.... The author has got inside a young, over-burdened mind with convincing accuracy.”
–Financial Times
“Kneale creates an extraordinary tension.... The combination of insight and innocence Kneale gives Lawrence is powerfully affecting.”
–Sunday Times
"Kneale has succeeded.... Lawrence has real presence and his situation is entirely believable."
–Daily Telegraph
“A skilful, humorous and touching novel about the way a child interprets the world.”
–Daily Mail
“The strength of Kneale’s novel is not suspense but Lawrence’s delicate sensibility.... Lawrence’s touchingly ingenuous language, his tetchy irritation with his baby sister and his beleaguered optimism make him a genuinely affecting protagonist.”
–Independent
“Substantial and engaging…With consummate subtlety and sympathy, Kneale finds metaphorical hinges between the family’s unfolding story and Lawrence’s two intellectual interests — Roman emperors and astronomy.”
–The Times
“A consistently absorbing read, the work of a craftsman.”
–Sunday Telegraph
“Laurence’s skilful maneuvering in a tricksy adult world is artfully depicted. His guileless voice only exacerbates the sense of dread, while its deceptive simplicity hides a chilling exploration of mental illness and maternal neglect.”
–New Statesman
“The compelling and disturbing portrayal of a child’s attempt to make sense of his mother’s mental illness.”
–Daily Express
From the Hardcover edition.
