'Urgent, passionate, compelling ... it deserves to stand beside Conrad and Greene' Guardian 'His are big novels, with daring, sweep and depth. In The Darling, he is working at full strength, and readers are in his debt' Washington Post 'With his trademark painterly consideration, Banks instills the lush landscape of war-torn Liberia and the bleak upstate farm (where Hannah grows organic vegetables and raises free-range chickens) with a brilliant intensity ... The Darling is a remarkable leap into the consciousness of a troubled mind' Los Angeles Times 'A satisfying, intensely moving tale. Unlike Hannah, Banks runs away from nothing. Those who despair of the modern novel, who wail that "they just don't write books like they used to", should read him' Glasgow Herald