One of the most admirable and enthralling literary novels of the year * Daily Mail * Extraordinary * Guardian * Superbly poised between the magic of innocence and the melancholy of experience * The Economist * Michael Ondaatje's impressive new novel, containing dreams and fantasy between a ship's flanks...is, in the most etymological way, a wonderful novel: one full of wonders -- Philip Hensher * Daily Telegraph * Atmospheric, elegiac and at times, like Ondaatje's most famous novel, The English Patient, unbearably poignant -- Sebastian Shakespeare * Tatler *