The Colony

Audrey Magee Press Reviews

'I've always believed that good fiction can go to the beating heart of human reality in ways more likely to resonate with a reader than any textbook. A good novel strengthens empathy as well as the imagination and encourages us to see another world from a perspective that travels beyond our own interests. And this novel is better than good. Its beautifully realised lament for lost language and cultural sustainability has universal relevance.' - Canberra Times

'Intelligent and provocative . . . What a relief it is to find a novel that treats the reader as a grown-up, that is fresh without chasing literary fashion, provocative but not shouty, and idiosyncratic but fully satisfying from the strange comedy of its opening pages to its decisive conclusion . . . The Colony contains multitudes - on families, on men and women, on rural communities - with much of it just visible on the surface, like the flicker of a smile or a shark in the water.' - The Times

'Austere and stark . . . a story about language and identity, about art, oppression, freedom and colonialism. The Colony is a novel about big, important things.' - Financial Times

'A vivid and memorable book about art, land and language, love and sex, youth and age. Big ideas tread lightly through Audrey Magee's strong prose.' - SARAH MOSS

'The Colony: so brilliant in its quiet tragedy, so revealing in its precision. It haunts me.' - TSITSI DANGAREMBGA

'A careful interrogation, The Colony expertly explores the mutability of language and art, the triumphs and failures inherent to the process of creation and preservation.' - RAVEN LEILANI

'The Colony is brimming with ideas about identity and soul; a canny, challenging, and never less than engrossing read.' - LISA MCINERNEY

'The Colony is a brilliant and thoughtfully calibrated commentary about the nature and balance of power. There is violence here, but, most impressively, Audrey Magee captures that more insidious cruelty-the kind masked as protection, as manners.' - MARY BETH KEANE

'Audrey Magee has written a lyrical, rich, and emotionally powerful novel. The Colony comes alive like a brooding and beautiful canvas painted off the Irish coast.' - DOMINIC SMITH