The vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez

Once you discover Sigrid Nunez, you don't look back
Anne Enright

A sharp-eyed and tender novel about human connection in a time of crisis. As compassionate as it is disquieting, and as funny as it is painfully honest
Paula Hawkins

Beautiful and profound
Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss

I am committed, until one of us dies, to Nunez's novels. I find them ideal. They are short, wise, provocative, funny – good and strong company
Dwight Garner, New York Times

Sigrid Nunez has a talent for slim, companionable novels that have both delicacy and power
Vogue

Powerful prose and insights into human connection make it compulsively readable
Elle

Brilliant … profoundly moving, charming and surprisingly gripping
Prospect, Books of the Year 2024

A gorgeous, funny novel about connection in the face of the pandemic
iPaper

[The Vulnerables] leaves us, as the novel reaches its extraordinarily hopeful and disarming last line, with the feeling that we have been helped
Guardian

With the intimacy and humour of a great conversation, this novel makes you feel smarter and more alive
People Magazine

The chic new hardback to have on your New Year reading pile . . . [Nunez is] a literary star
The Independent – Jessie Thompson

Layered and thoughtful … it's plainly written, but has beautiful depths
Daily Telegraph, The 75 Hottest Books of 2024 So Far

A breath of fresh air for a time when it still sometimes feels like there isn't any
Good Housekeeping

Elegiac, tartly funny . . . To read it is to feel in intimate conversation with its narrator
Daily Telegraph

Infused with moments of hilarity and wisdom. Beautiful
Woman’s Weekly

Nunez gracefully leaps from big emotions, including grief, to erudite literary digressions or biting wit
Wall Street Journal

The Vulnerables is full of alive, curious poetry on the chaotic times we live in
Sheena Patel, author of I’m a Fan

Smart and sad and funny
Sarah Moss

The elegant writing makes it a compelling read. I'm a huge fan
Good Housekeeping (UK)

A funny, divinely chatty novel filled with moments of the sublime. I really think there are sections of this book that I'll be thinking about forever
Caroline O’Donoghue

It is exciting to read a book that manages to be so honest and serious, and at the same time so playful and witty
Natasha Walter

Sigrid Nunez is among the most interesting writers of our generation … Nunez is both as cold as ice about ageing (the old are “bleached and bent and shrivelled”) and funny (“you reach a certain age, and it all kicks in: Social Security, Medicare and a fondness for hydrangeas”) and constantly surprises you with her references (Larry David, Lily Tomlin) as well as her anecdotes (it's tough to forget the startling image of a young woman with an eating disorder who kills her appetite by coating her tongue with Tiger Balm)
Independent

It's fresh, it's funny and it's very now. It has humour and honesty in spades, both wielded in self-defence against a world that feels off-kilter and almost absurd in its terribleness, from the gig economy to the Trump 'phenomenon', from creative frustration to urban burnout. I love Sigrid's clarity and quick expression, along with her quirky range of interests, her economy and lightness of touch
Bidisha

Nunez's rare ability to be at once wistfully elegiac and sharply hilarious make The Vulnerables a gift
Boston Globe

Sigrid Nunez is a beautiful storyteller: there's beauty, depth, lightness and whimsy in her writing. But what I most admired was her confidence to be playful and inventive. The Vulnerables is clever, refreshing and fulfilling to read
Claire Kohda, author of Woman, Eating

Grounded in an unexpected friendship between an abandoned bird and a lonely, older novelist, The Vulnerables finds new ways to expound on themes of community, companionship, and finding hope in seemingly hopeless situations
Harper’s Bazaar, Best Books of 2023