‘”Thirty Girls” is based on one of the strangest and best-known episodes from that bloody period in Ugandan history … What is unnerving about “Thirty Girls” is how easily Minot’s style fits this much more extreme and disturbing subject matter. The stark tone and structure of short, vivid scenes seem more appropriate to the tale of traumatised schoolgirls than they do to the ordinary miseries of rejection or miscommunication … Minot pulls off the account of things that might seem so horrific as to be unspeakable’ Lidija Haas, Sunday Times‘A heart-rending novel based on horrific real-life event. A punch in the gut over and over again’ Chris Pavone, Metro‘Admirable … ‘Thirty Girls’ is a malignant picture of a country that gnaws away at its own children, and of the impotence of those who watch from the sidelines’ India Ross, Financial Times‘Minot’s gripping novel weaves together the stories of a Ugandan teen abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army and an American journalist covering the war’ Metro‘Wrenching … Suspenseful … By far her best’ New York Times‘A novel of quiet humanity and probing intelligence … Minot is particularly good on the topology of desire … But it’s the story of what happened to those 30 abducted girls that shows Minot’s gifts as a writer … Minot takes huge questions and examines them with both a delicate touch and a cleareyed, unyielding scrutiny’ New York Times Book Review‘Exceptional … Represents a broadening vision for Minot … She has earned a trademark on the subject of desire’ Elle