It is perhaps too soon to say precisely what Greenwell's own fictional territory will look like - but even this early on, the landscape looks too riveting to miss (Alex Clark Guardian)Ī rich, important debut, an instant classic to be savored by all lovers of serious fiction because of, not despite, its subject: a gay man's endeavor to fathom his own heart (Aaron Hamburger New York Times Book Review)īrilliantly self-aware. Like the writers he admires, WG Sebald, Thomas Bernhard and Javier Marías, he is drawn to the idea of a body of work that seems as though it is all one book, or, as with Sebald in particular, a territory in which the reader wanders. middle section a masterful study in alienation and escape. In fact, though, the greater similarity lies in their ability to blend a lyrical prose - the prose of longing, missed connections, grasped pleasures - with an almost uncanny depth of observation. I had thought of Hollinghurst as I read What Belongs to You, Greenwell's astonishingly assured debut novel, but questioned whether the parallel came to mind because both writers create vivid, enclosed worlds filled with ambiguous and shifting relationships between gay men. What Belongs to You is an uncommonly sensitive, intelligent and poignant novel ( Sunday Times) Greenwell writes in long, consummately nuanced sentences, strung with insights and soaked in melancholy. I found myself trembling as I read it ( Evening Standard)Ī refreshingly slim, subdued and contemplative piece of work.

a novel of rejection and disgust, displacement and transcendence. Worthy of its comparisons to James Baldwin and Alan Hollinghurst as well as Virginia Woolf and W G Sebald. an essential work of our time ( Daily Telegraph *****) we are dealing with a writer who deserves his plaudits. What Belongs to You stands naturally alongside the great works of compromised sexual obsession such as Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.

Greenwell what belongs to you