Review
James Meek's new novel has all the urgent readability of his previous work combined with a wide-ranging vision of social and personal responsibility that's very rare in current fiction. I suppose we could call it a moral thriller. Whatever we call it, I was enormously impressed. (Philip Pullman)
Addictive . . . Meek is a novelist of Dostoevskyan intensity and seriousness . . . Terrific . . . You have to admire the scope and ambition of this operatic saga (Guardian)
Intelligent, compelling and epic in scale (Woman & Home)
Page-turning and absorbing (Victoria Moore Daily Mail)
James Meek is Britain's answer to Don DeLillo (Brian Morton Independent)
In a literary culture that rewards narrow little books by sixtysomething white men about what it's like to be a sixtysomething white man, Meek's range, humour and boldness are a joy (Louise Doughty Observer)
Set in the near future, [Meek's] sinister media underworld hits on the zeitgeist . . . the characterisation is affectionate and the story is gripping (We Love This Book)
An enjoyable, thought-provoking read, going beyond satire to throw the questions back to the reader (Andrea Mullaney Scotland on Sunday)
This is a big juicy slab of a book, as thrilling and nourishing as a Victorian three-parter . . . Meek constantly shift's the reader's own moral foundations, as we try to decide who is doing right and wrong and why and how (Whynn Weldon Spectator)
The Heart Broke In is a realistic slice of life at the bench, reflecting both the admirable and the unflattering qualities of scientists (Nature Magazine)
This page-turning tale ranges over contemporary London like a magnet, tugging up the nuggets of friction that make a great book . . . the writing is at times so lovely that it shouldn't be rushed, but savoured (Louise Chunn Psychologies Magazine)
Meek's characterization is excellent and the dilemmas he gives the players in his drama are convincing and intense enough to hurt . . . he manages to do this while keeping the pages turning as fast as any thriller. This is a feast of a novel, to which I shall return again and again (Elsbeth Linder Book Oxygen)
Meeks looks at the question of family, what it means and how actions affect the people in it. He weaves complicated lives, entwines characters in layers and layers of history until they can't breathe or escape from each other (Claire Snook Bookmunch)
Meek's novel is energised by a dynamic interplay of social, cultural, philosophical and scientific ideas, and as befits a big, serious fiction, it has the courage to address big, serious issues (Trevor Lewis The Sunday Times)
A novel shimmering with black humour, which for the sheer verve of the writing deserves a long shelf life (Lucy Beresford The Sunday Telegraph)
The burning desire to discover how it all pans out propels one to finish this bravura book by a remarkable writer (The Lady)
A wonderfully sharp, intelligently observed and often very funny novel (Toby Clements The Telegraph)
Plenty to relish in this topical novel pitched enjoyably between thriller and satire (Metro)
The Heart Broke In is an absorbing family saga with Forsterian ambitions . . . In this compelling novel Meek, with his vivid characterisation and narrative drive, succeeds in engaging the heart as well as the head (Annalema McAfee Financial Times 20120929)
The Heart Broke In has a dizzying reach, playing science off religion, cynics against lovers, atheists against believers . . . it's a book that doesn't want to do your thinking for you (Olivia Cole GQ 20121101)
The lyricism and wry wit with which Meek writes means this is a fine novel, and an excellent representation of how we live now (Daniel Davies The Skinny 20121001)
An engrossing novel structured around grand eternal themes but pin-sharp and peopled with characters you wish you knew (Good Book Guide)
Lively and compelling (William Leith Evening Standard)
While written with the accessibility of a mainstream novel, this is an ideas-heavy book that works on various levels: as a psychological thriller of sorts, a family saga and a meditation on a host of issues which, like the DNA in our cells, have never been put together in quite this way before (Alastair Mabbott The Herald)
This is an absorbing tale from an accomplished writer (Sunday Business Post)
[The Heart Broke In] is built on the solid foundations of deeply satisfying plotting and precision-tooled prose (Fiction Uncovered)
Dealing both with today's obsession with fame and the human knack for self-deception, this is a story of our times, painting a none too flattering but probably all too accurate picture of what it is that motivates us and how that leaves us morally deprived (Bookhugger, Nudge)
Addictive . . . Meek is a novelist of Dostoevskyan intensity and seriousness . . . Terrific . . . You have to admire the scope and ambition of this operatic saga (Guardian)
Intelligent, compelling and epic in scale (Woman & Home)
Page-turning and absorbing (Victoria Moore Daily Mail)
James Meek is Britain's answer to Don DeLillo (Brian Morton Independent)
In a literary culture that rewards narrow little books by sixtysomething white men about what it's like to be a sixtysomething white man, Meek's range, humour and boldness are a joy (Louise Doughty Observer)
Set in the near future, [Meek's] sinister media underworld hits on the zeitgeist . . . the characterisation is affectionate and the story is gripping (We Love This Book)
An enjoyable, thought-provoking read, going beyond satire to throw the questions back to the reader (Andrea Mullaney Scotland on Sunday)
This is a big juicy slab of a book, as thrilling and nourishing as a Victorian three-parter . . . Meek constantly shift's the reader's own moral foundations, as we try to decide who is doing right and wrong and why and how (Whynn Weldon Spectator)
The Heart Broke In is a realistic slice of life at the bench, reflecting both the admirable and the unflattering qualities of scientists (Nature Magazine)
This page-turning tale ranges over contemporary London like a magnet, tugging up the nuggets of friction that make a great book . . . the writing is at times so lovely that it shouldn't be rushed, but savoured (Louise Chunn Psychologies Magazine)
Meek's characterization is excellent and the dilemmas he gives the players in his drama are convincing and intense enough to hurt . . . he manages to do this while keeping the pages turning as fast as any thriller. This is a feast of a novel, to which I shall return again and again (Elsbeth Linder Book Oxygen)
Meeks looks at the question of family, what it means and how actions affect the people in it. He weaves complicated lives, entwines characters in layers and layers of history until they can't breathe or escape from each other (Claire Snook Bookmunch)
Meek's novel is energised by a dynamic interplay of social, cultural, philosophical and scientific ideas, and as befits a big, serious fiction, it has the courage to address big, serious issues (Trevor Lewis The Sunday Times)
A novel shimmering with black humour, which for the sheer verve of the writing deserves a long shelf life (Lucy Beresford The Sunday Telegraph)
The burning desire to discover how it all pans out propels one to finish this bravura book by a remarkable writer (The Lady)
A wonderfully sharp, intelligently observed and often very funny novel (Toby Clements The Telegraph)
Plenty to relish in this topical novel pitched enjoyably between thriller and satire (Metro)
The Heart Broke In is an absorbing family saga with Forsterian ambitions . . . In this compelling novel Meek, with his vivid characterisation and narrative drive, succeeds in engaging the heart as well as the head (Annalema McAfee Financial Times 20120929)
The Heart Broke In has a dizzying reach, playing science off religion, cynics against lovers, atheists against believers . . . it's a book that doesn't want to do your thinking for you (Olivia Cole GQ 20121101)
The lyricism and wry wit with which Meek writes means this is a fine novel, and an excellent representation of how we live now (Daniel Davies The Skinny 20121001)
An engrossing novel structured around grand eternal themes but pin-sharp and peopled with characters you wish you knew (Good Book Guide)
Lively and compelling (William Leith Evening Standard)
While written with the accessibility of a mainstream novel, this is an ideas-heavy book that works on various levels: as a psychological thriller of sorts, a family saga and a meditation on a host of issues which, like the DNA in our cells, have never been put together in quite this way before (Alastair Mabbott The Herald)
This is an absorbing tale from an accomplished writer (Sunday Business Post)
[The Heart Broke In] is built on the solid foundations of deeply satisfying plotting and precision-tooled prose (Fiction Uncovered)
Dealing both with today's obsession with fame and the human knack for self-deception, this is a story of our times, painting a none too flattering but probably all too accurate picture of what it is that motivates us and how that leaves us morally deprived (Bookhugger, Nudge)
Review
"* 'One of the country's finest writers.' - GQ * 'The best and most original book that i have read for years' - Louis de Bernieres, on The People's Act of Love * 'Spellbinding... a truly great read' - Guardian, on The People's Act of Love * 'The narrative drive in amazing. So is the cold clarity of Meek's imagination' - Stephen King, on The People's Act of Love * 'Ingenious, intricate... a meditation on grand ideas that is also a suspenseful page-turner' - New York Times, on The People's Act of Love"
