RaveThe GuardianAlthough it is technically a novel, it is a novel stripped, like its subject, of all life's comforts. What we're left with is Salim's voice, a voice all the more magnificent for being draped in darkness. Some have found echoes of Beckett in the lucid, pared-down prose, and certainly there is something Beckettian about his limited environment and studied hopelessness. But that he has renounced hope for a higher purpose is clear from the opening lines … The narrative follows a winding and treacherous path: inspired solitary departures end in unspeakable degradation. Horrible deaths alternate with inspired collective efforts to stay alive … It is, despite its dark materials, a joy to read.