“Harding is a conjurer. Give him a long-since demolished stairwell, and he'll give you a world—its sound, its smell, the feeling that you could stumble upon it still.”

– Rachel Cooke, Observer

“Stunning.”

– Boston Globe

“Beautifully written, funny and sad, this book is simply captivating.”

– Cressida Connolly, Daily Telegraph

“Fluid and invigorating ... a delicate and absorbing account of Harding's investigation into the circumstances of his adoption.”

– John Palattella, Nation

“Harding's story is that of an adopted boy growing up in London, and his decision later to search for his natural mother. Readers get a detailed chronicle of the search and its ramifications, turning up hidden facets of the family Harding thought he knew.”

– Library Journal

“An able, imaginative work of kinship and family.”

– Kirkus

“Its colorful, insightful revelations about his adoptive parents and compelling discoveries about his birth mother give this slender memoir a special magic and beauty that will grip the reader long after the final page is turned.”

– Publishers Weekly