The Bear Boy (Paperback)

"Here are the hallmarks of Ozick's writing: high intelligence linked to consummate technique... The writing is perfectly poised, entirely fresh... a universe of particulars lived intensely, and, against the odds, with love." -- Tom Adair, The Scotsman "THE BEAR BOY is sparky, mischievous, witty, dazzlingly clever, properly dimensional, and written with such calmness so close to the foulness of history as to seem somehow beyond the world, almost mercilessly self-assured. But like all the best fiction, while it knows that books are a necessary refuge, it doesn't once dodge the heresies and complexities of the real." -- Ali Smith The Guardian "Part of this novel's appeal is that it does not fulfil our expectations. What we think will happen doesn't, and entirely unexpected things do. Yet this chance element never seems strained: that is America, then and now." -- George Walden The Sunday Telegraph "minutely embroidered novel" "absolutely has that lived life that a good novel has." -- Tom Sutcliffe Saturday Review (BBC Radio 4) "Starts very seductively, it is I think, a very detailed and interesting and wonderfully character driven portrait of New York." "there's wonderful scenes, extraordinary scenes." -- James Runcie Saturday Review (BBC Radio 4) "A demanding but rewarding novel... curiously compelling." -- Peter Parker, Sunday Times "How does a Jewish family, from a comfortable, intellectual milieu in Berlin, fleeing the Holocaust to settle in North America, cope with displacement, loss of money and status the reinvention of self? " And praises her "greatness and integrity." -- Michele Roberts, The Times "Ozick's narrative is always transparent and lucid but every incident, every shift of power is phatasmagoric... a compelling, zestful and searching novel of the twentieth century." TLS "a lively and compelling book, written with conspicuous beauty." -- Lewis Jones DAILY TELEGRAPH "All of a sudden, there is a buzz about Cynthia Ozick... The Bear Boy has been published with a conviction that looks as if it expects substantial sales. Each character is evoked with loving, pitiless detail in robust and gorgeous prose; each one is ridiculous and tragic, noble and petty... Besides being full of intellectual riches, The Bear Boy is witty and moving; I hope it achieves the success it deserves." -- John de Falbe, The Spectator "[THE BEAR BOY] is an anatomy of melancholy but it is also very funny, and an unbelievably ravishing read> ...We talk of Henry James, the Brontes and George Eliot and I think [THE BEAR BOY] is a tribute to that but it lives in that company." -- Paul Morley, BBC2 Newsnight Review A scintillating novel Mail on Sunday's You magazine "Rich in ideas about culture, family, love, history, luck and death and rippling with weird and wonderful words, this book is impressive." SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY "Ozick's prose has the spark and flow of the writers she alludes to, and she manages to shed fresh light on the immigrant experience... Ozick's inclusion among the contenders for the first Man Booker International Prize is bound to bring her worldwide recognition. An intelligent and dleightful writer, she has taken a familiar voice - that of the plucky orphaned heroine - and reinvented it in a familiar way." New Statesman "Cynthia Ozick is one of the most consistently inventive novelists at work today, and The Bear Boy is as exciting and diverting as anything she has written." -- Paul Bailey Independent "Cynthia Ozick is now in her late seventies and her gifts as a novelist show no signs of diminishing... Ozick tells their story with intelligence and subtlety and skilfully connects it with wider themes of literature and dislocation." FINANCIAL TIMES "darkly whimsical... with a cast of brilliantly individuated characters (not least the beguiling narrator) the novel plays with the big themes: destinies and determinants, identities and futures, imprisonment and escape." JEWISH RENAISSANCE "Only Ozick would or could have written The Bear Boy... certainly a novel of ideas... never choked by the ideas. It remains fluid and lifelike... Ozick has always thought that fiction should have a higher purpose; that as she once put it, "story should not only be but mean." She has allowed The Bear Boy to be as well as to mean." -- Theo Tait LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

'Her wittiest, most engrossing book to date... Abundantly rich in ideas, language and emotion, the novel enchants and satisfies with its zesty union of heart and brain.' (INDEPENDENT (26/5/06) )

'Ozick's prose is warmed by a humanity reminiscent of the best Victorian novelists, making this a gratifying read.' (OBSERVER (4/6/06) )