A Weekend in New York

In tender, compassionate prose and a deftly compressed time-scheme, Markovits glints through desire, ennui, misunderstanding, and love, illuminating one family's life so that it glows collectively like a human panorama.

‘This is a novel where every detail is determined. It is not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. It would be a failure on my part to reveal the ending(s) but they are both perfectly satisfying and bravely open. Were I a betting man I would put money on this making the longlist for the Man Booker Prize this year. Even if it does not, I will remember it for a long, long time.’

‘Intimate, funny and agile enough to capture the ever-shifting sands on which family life is built … masterfully done.’

Markovits' elegant, absorbing eighth novel ... He wears his sporting knowledge with a light, limber confidence. He’s terrific on the fine-grained detail of the athlete’s life ... What a fine ear Markovits has for the way people talk ... Incrementally, over the course of the weekend, we’ve grown attuned to the lives of Markovits’s first-world also-rans, thrilled by their series of close-volley dramas like spectators in the stands of an outside court ... It feels momentous, a catalyst for change, and the outcome sends ripples into the future.

‘A book to be savoured … for its granular evocation of family life … Hugely enjoyable.’

Scrupulous social realism … what’s most striking about the novel is Markovits’s [Anne] Tyler-like ability to be both completely unsparing about, and warmly accepting of, the sheer weirdness of family life.