Outstanding. Girl at War performs the miracle of making the stories of broken lives in a distant country feel as large and universal as myth.

An old-fashioned page-turner that will demand all of the reader's attention, happily given. A debut novel that astonishes.

A shattering debut. The book begins with what deserves to become one of contemporary literature's more memorable opening lines. The sentences that follow are equally as lyrical as a folk lament and as taut as metal wire wrapped through an electrified fence.

A gripping debut novel. Sara Nović, in tender and eloquent prose, explores the challenges.