Catton, author of
The Luminaries 'Wonderful'
Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers
'What a bizarrely brilliant book. An absorbing, moving and darkly humorous reimagining of the life of Marie Groscholtz, the little servant girl who would become Madame Tussaud.' -
Anna Mazzola, author of The Unseeing'An exquisitely disturbing treasure of a novel. Sensual, unassumingly poignant, hilarious, heartbreaking, cruel, joyous: Edward Carey's Little is a triumph and one of the most intoxicating novels I've read. I never wanted to leave Marie's side.' -
Sarah Schmidt, author of See What I Have Done'An extravagant tall tale about someone very small in a history that still looks so very large,
Little is bawdy, tragic, mesmerizing, hilarious. If you've forgotten why you'd even read a novel, Edward Carey is here to set you straight.' -
Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night'Exquisitely sensitive to all the warmth, vigour, humour, woe, and peculiarities of human nature, as if Carey had a dowsing rod capable of divining what hides within the human heart.'
Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble'A delightfully strange portrait of a young orphan honing her eccentric craft amid the tumult of the French Revolution. Carey's flair for macabre whimsy has drawn comparisons to Tim Burton (take a look at the illustrations and you can see why). While death haunts this story, between vibrant characters and riveting historical detail,
Little is a novel that teems with life.' -
Time 'It is Carey's uniquely inventive style that makes this novel so completely, wickedly, addictive.'
- Big Issue
'One of the most inventive novels I've read in a long time. Little by Edward Carey is alive with the unexpected and that's before you even get to his disquieting illustrations.'
- The Pool'In an age in which historical female figures have gained more posthumous recognition, Little is a perfectly weaved story of a woman who has captured the imagination of many, but has been written about by few. From Marie's perspective, the difficulties 18th-century women faced in order to achieve recognition or success are illuminated for the modern reader.'
- Culture Trip'Sparkling, bizarre [and] several years in the making.'
-Entertainment Weekly
'If this were music, Carey would be Eric Satie. If it were film, he would be Tim Burton'
Newsday 'Conveyed with so much sympathy and acute observation that it is hard not to be beguiled'
The Times
'The kind of book you want to shove into the hands of all your friends, just so you have someone to gush about it with.'
Buzzfeed Books
'There is nothing ordinary about this book. Carey, with sumptuous turns of phrase, fashions a fantastical world that churns with vitality, especially his "Little," a female Candide at once surreal and full of heart.'
Publishers Weekly (starred) 'Carey channels the ghosts of Charles Dickens, Henry Fielding, and the Brothers Grimm to tell Marie's tale... A quirky, compelling story that deepens into a meditation on mortality and art.'
Kirkus Reviews (starred)
'A wonderfully weird exploration of spectacles, from wax heads to revolutions, that will delight lovers of the macabre.'
BookPage
'Lavishly illustrated with Marie's strange and compelling drawings, Edward Carey's Little is a boldly original reimagining of the life of the woman who would become the legendary Madame Tussaud.'
Library Journal (Editor's Pick)
'An immensely creative epic...Mingling a sense of playfulness with macabre history, Carey depicts the excesses of wealth and violence during the French Revolution through the eyes of a talented woman who lived through it and survived...The unique perspective, witty narrative voice, and clever illustrations make for an irresistible read.'
Booklist (starred review)
