The Interrogative Mood - Tapa dura

Surreal, hypnotic and unique... an epic journey of enquiry (Independent 2010-11-13)

A great read... It works triumphantly... Lyrical, profound, heartbreaking and fantastically funny, it becomes, as the questions pile up, a compendious and intimate portrait of the questioner... it is superbly balanced. (Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times 2010-10-31)

An extraordinary book... a celebration of the human need to understand, which makes it life-affirming. Fresh and funny, it reminded me of the work of that other playful miniaturist, Nicholson Baker. (Adrian Turpin Financial Times 2010-10-23)

Powell is asking us to consider what we want from fiction... a remarkable book... Where many experimental novels are content merely to test the limits of our concept of fiction, Powell is more ambitious... he has succeeded in producing a novel which exists entirely off the page; it is our unseen responses which determine what the story will be. (Sam Byers TLS 2010-11-12)

Would you spend £9.99 on this book? (Ben Jackson The Sun 2010-11-12)

What if I told you that, as unlikely as it may sound, reading this book was one of the most intriguing and pleasurable experiences I have had this year?

An impressive literary comeback and a work of real bravado and charm. The book is not a novel but it manages to do something that many novels try to do: it offers a detailed, fascinating character study by exploring the textures of a highly individual and idiosyncratic sensibility... There is, as these questions accumulate, a kind of melancholy, an obsessive nostalgia that is, in a way that is hard to put one's finger on, deeply moving....

So did I enjoy this book? Should you read it? Do you really have to ask?

(Troy Jollimore Observer 2010-11-07)

Is this the most bloody-mindedly brilliant new work of fiction I have read this year? Why? Who's asking? Could you stop that please? (Stephen Poole Guardian 2010-11-13)

When we first came across Padgett Powell's remarkable writing it blew our minds completely... brilliant!... bonkers Beckettian comedy... a truly great and hilarious little book, and these questions are for life. Not just for Christmas. (Stuart Hammond Dazed and Confused 2010-11-01)

A compulsive read...you'll find yourself answering back to every page (Danielle Goldstein Time Out 2010-11-18)

A remarkable book. ..astonishingly insightful...compelling and mesmerising...The prose is beautiful and the questions admirably structured, touching upon all aspects of life from the mundane to the sublime...Powell fires off razor-sharp questions with a casual flair that belies the intensity and personal nature of some of the questions...Brilliantly inventive and intelligent, The Interrogative Mood is a bewildering and fascinating story. Not only is it unique and strange, but this bizarre book will linger in your mind long after you've stopped reading (Bryony Byrne Aesthetica 2010-11-01)