The Son of Manis an astonishing book. Beautifully written, devastating at times, and relentless, but unforgettable.
Michael Magee, author ofClose to Home
An exquisite and mesmerizing novel, in which violence constantly threatens to break the surface. The precision and detail of the prose imprints on the mind like a photograph.
Isabella Hammad, author ofEnter Ghost
The Son of Manis an explosion, a shout. Jean-Baptiste Del Amo is a storming talent; here are words which are forged rather than written, smeared with blood.
Daisy Johnson, author ofSisters
The Son of Mandemands a fearless kind of reading. It combines the impassive eye of a naturalist regarding their object of study, with the fierce revolt of that which is scrutinised, and resists being catalogued and known. Del Amo reaches into atavistic territories of impulse, desire, violence and repetition, and refuses to domesticate through conclusion. I was mesmerised by this formidable tale of a son and a mother who come up against both the law of the father and the lawlessness of nature
Daisy Lafarge, author ofLovebug
The theme of transmission between father and son is at the heart of the novel. It is marked by a macabre determinism, everything is already played for, poisoned. A wandering insane grandfather casts a shadow and bad luck ricochets on his descendants. Jean-Baptiste Del Amo does not shy away from showing the atrocious. He has several strings to his hunters bow; an art of careful framing, of scenic observation. A taste for the primeval drive mixed with intuitions and perceptions. There are many magnificent scenes, such as the son swimming in the river with his mother. Brief moments of light amidst the darkness and a fear so intense you could cut it with a knife.'
Le Figaro Litteraire
With The Son of Man, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo focuses intensely on the imperceptible tipping point in violence.... [A] horror reminiscent of The Shining in this huis clos with an open sky.
Elle Magazine
InThe Son of Manthe simple plot becomes as complex as the psychology of these human beasts. The writing is never precious, always precise. As the tension mounts, the sentences become longer and meandering, elusive like erupting violence. Rarely has a 39-year-old author hit the right notes so perfectly in the way he stretches his fiction.
Le Monde
Jean-Baptiste Del Amo signs here a story of rare power that does not let go of the reader until the last page. The writing is dazzling. One of the most brilliant authors of his generation.
RTL
If EM Cioran, the great Romanian philosopher of the bleak, had been a novelist,Animaliais the kind of novel he would have produced [and] it is likely to be hailed as a modern classic.
Ian Sansom,Guardian (praise for Animalia)
This is an extraordinary book. A dark saga related in sprawling sentences, made denser still by obscure and difficult vocabulary, it is everything I usually hate in a novel. Instead, I was spellbound.
David Mills,Sunday Times (praise for Animalia)
Del Amo has Flauberts flair for performance ... His prose leaps out at the reader, gleaming with perfection.
Ankita Chakraborty, New York Times Book Review (praise for Animalia)
