* Packed with emotional intensity Sunday Times * A writer of huge ability ... Brings to mind John Williams's resurrected masterpiece, Stoner Guardian * To recount a life story in a novel is a difficult task. To do so with brevity and unsentimental honesty takes greatness. Academy Street is a powerful and emotional novel from one of literature's finest new voices -- JOHN BOYNE * An exceptional first novel The Times * With extraordinary devotion, Mary Costello brings to life a woman who would otherwise have faded into oblivion -- J.M. COETZEE * Mary Costello's writing has the kind of urgency that the great problems demand - call them themes; they are the kind of problems that make a writer -- ANNE ENRIGHT Guardian * Academy Street is understated, graceful and, ultimately, devastating. Even as my heart was breaking I couldn't put the book down -- DONAL RYAN, author of The Spinning Heart * Intensely moving but never sentimental, Academy Street is a profound meditation on what Faulkner called 'the human heart in conflict with itself'. In Tess Lohan, Mary Costello has created one of the most fully realised characters in contemporary fiction. What a marvel of a book -- RON RASH * Costello proves herself an absolute master in Academy Street Independent * A novel where the interior life on an ordinary woman is delineated with artistry and grace Metro Delve[s] deep into the human condition, into the bittersweet beauty of life Irish Times * In her deceptively easygoing debut novel, Costello has refined her already spare style so that scarcely a word or phrase feels extraneous Metro Herald * An unimpeachable addition to the literature of Irish diaspora Country Life * The work of a highly accomplished writer and heralds the emergence of an exciting new novelist ... Academy Street will keep you glued to its crisp pages, such is the intensity of its language and scale of its emotional reach. This is a novel that should be read by anyone who cares about writing and its ability to invoke Irish Independent * A markedly brave book, an unblinking attempt to recreate a life of intense ordinariness and make it special ... well worth applauding Sunday Times Extraordinarily compelling Guardian * Excellent Times Literary Supplement * Immense maturity and unusual writerly empathy Scotsman * A devastatingly sad, unsentimental and beautifully wrought account of a quiet life Psychologies * Heart-breaking The Simple Things * A major literary accomplishment from an exciting new voice Westmeath Independent Tess's fearful, reserved exterior and rich inner world is written with exacting discipline. Every emotion, every sensory image is pared back on the page, stripped right down to its very essence ... Academy Street will keep you glued to its crisp pages, such is the intensity of its language and scale of its emotional reach Irish Independent