Fieldwork

'A novel of brilliant energy and utter dedication to its characters . . . they are all rendered with great empathy and compassion . . . This is storytelling of the highest quality: richly entertaining, intelligent and anchored in a deep sense of humanity.' Tash Aw, Guardian

'Lush in its landscapes, dense in its ideas, always startlingly nimble and witty, this Thailand-set first novel performs some strange upcountry magic of its own. Somehow, it transforms the anguish of expat anthropologists into a cracking adventure . . . We know from the off that tragedy has struck in the hills beyond Chiang Mai – but how, and why? As East and West kiss and clash, and farang intruders swing 'to the pendulum-edges of their souls', Berlinski never stints on the ethnographic back-story – a risk in clumsier hands, but an enrichment in such zestful company.' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

'Gripping and entertaining . . . Exuberant and inventive.' Hilary Mantel, New York Review of Books

'A rare few books are so exceptionally good you deliberately read them slowly, deliberately put them down to prolong the pleasure of picking them up again later. For me, Fieldwork comes into this last category. Even more astonishing than this is the fact that it's a first novel, though it's written with such seeming ease, such fluency that you would think the author had been writing novels all his life.' Oxford Times

'A killer novel . . . A great story . . . You can't stop reading.' Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly