Impressive . . . Rowan Hisayo Buchanan [is] a 27-year-old with a very big literary career in front of her . . . Slick and intelligent... it's the subtle brilliance of Buchanan's back-to-front tale that really left me reeling. * Stylist *
Elegant, accomplished debut... Although this is a dark novel, it is also as rich and vivid as the chapter headings' descriptions of paint colours * Express *
Lyrical and endearing * New York Times Book Review *
This beautiful novel explores creativity and the complicated relationships between parents and children. * Psychologies *
This elegant and moving novel burns slowly, building in intensity as it develops to explore the subjects of identity, alienation and desire. * Fanny Blake, Daily Mail *
Harmless Like You is a refreshing, bold book about understatement. * Sunday Telegraph *
It's pretty rare that a book takes my breath away. But I guarantee Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's beautiful debut, Harmless Like You, will do just that . . will leave your heart hurting. * Sam Baker, The Pool *
Combines a wry, sardonic voice with an assured knack for comic set-pieces. * TLS *
Stylishly written . . . exceptional * Literary Review *
Buchanan's prose is visceral, startling and mind-bendingly gorgeous. . . .worth reading for the beauty and originality of the prose, for the questions Buchanan raises about art and heritage, and for the characters who are sometimes as maddening as they can be magnificent. * Boston Globe *
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's debut is a beautifully textured novel. . . Yuki's story feels compellingly immediate, as prickly and unpredictable as its protagonist. * Washington Post *
A serious, sad and beautifully written debut. * South China Morning Post *
A well written, unique and engrossing debut novel . . . a great achievement * The Bookbag ***** *
This is a book I've been waiting for since before its author was born. And yet I could never have predicted it. It is a book about beauty and belonging, suffering and being lost, a book that takes into account history, the implications of separation and disorientation. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan cleaves to her idiosyncrasies, foregoing whitewash in favor of her ownglittering vision. She is the seer, not the seen. The result is a gift-unassuming, elegant, vividly prismatic. Not since Sigrid Nunez's A Feather on the Breath of God has a book shone such a moving light on multiracial, interracial, and transnational relationships. Regardless of your flesh tone, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's study of color-its history, its strangeness, its allure, and its consequences - will dazzle you. * JENNIFER TSENG, author of Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness *
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan writes with beauty and sensitivity about what it means to be an artist, a parent, and an outsider in a foreign culture. * New York Journal of Books *
