An original and bleakly funny portrait of grief * * Economist * * A supreme example of a natural and skilled storyteller -- Colm Toibin Surprising . . . with a warmth that is genuinely and unexpectedly moving * * Guardian * * A wondrous book with two fathers, Kingsley Amis and Dante -- Sebastian Barry Makes for dark, thrilling reading . . . In James Darke, Gekoski has created a powerful, raging voice * * Spectator * * I was beguiled and charmed by the vivid personality being revealed. By that, and by the fact that I couldn't stop reading. Gekoski puts words together with a sure touch and deep craftsmanship -- Philip Pullman Rick Gekoski's impressive debut novel . . . Darke is both a tender and hard-hitting examination of grief and the slow, singular healing process . . . A brilliantly vivid creation . . . life-affirming and life-shattering * * The Herald * * Stuffed with more wisdom, bile, wit and tenderness than many writers create in a lifetime. In James Darke we have a hero as troubled and eternal as King Lear . . . And in Rick Gekoski we have a late-flowering genius of a novelist who proves it's never too late to start a glittering career in fiction * * The Times * * An immensely enjoyable elegy . . . done with precision and patience -- Stuart Kelly * * The Scotsman * * Debut delight . . . Just how this gleefully conjured misanthrope came to wall himself off from the world is the mystery at the heart of a singular first novel that evolves into a moving meditation on loss and redemption * * Mail on Sunday * *