This is a powerful novel of depth and intensity, and one that subtly changes mood from cocktail- and opium-fuelled larks to despair and degradation * Sunday Times *
Gripping and moving ... Francesca Brill is a very good writer indeed and I was sucked into the story until I was no longer aware of things going on around me, only of what was going on to the characters I had grown to love, and an era I knew very little about but which was instantly fascinating. High quality story-telling * Simon Sebag Montefiore *
With shocking vividness Brill describes the violence of the occupation and sensitively explores the compromises, both moral and emotional, of people caught up in desperate situations. It is a romantic novel, but it's tough and tragic too, a gritty tale of passion and wartime endurance -- Eithne Farry * Daily Mail *
A wonderfully sage and gripping novel * Spectator Books of the Year *
A haunting tale of love's struggle to survive against all odds. A bold and beautifully written debut * Mark Mills, author of The Savage Garden *
A tumultuous, passionate, fierce story of wartime love * Daily Express *
A fiercely imagined and deeply felt story of complicated wartime love. I could see every scene * Rosie Alison, author of The Very Thought of You *
The Harbour is an exceptional first novel: an intelligent romance immersed in its historical setting, and with a thread of steel running through it. Layers of race, role, sex, politics and sexual politics meld to make a much tougher, more interesting novel than a casual glance might suggest. We need more love stories like this * Louisa Young *
