“The variety of viewpoints and the author’s evident intimacy with an ancient foreign capital [Budapest] are promising, and Ervin makes it plain that he is taking on weighty themes.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“With dexterous sensibility and fluid prose, Ervin’s protagonists find liberation from the onerous strictures of Budapest's Nazi and Communist past.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A thought-provoking exploration of tyranny, freedom, and the power of music.”
—Booklist
“A poignant case for the power of art in an age of war.”
—The Star Tribune
“Darkly evocative. . . . The book has a prismlike quality; each story makes us see the city from a different but overlapping perspective.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Andrew Ervin writes with an empathetic passion, near poetic words, daring politics, and a sensitive and mature grasp of his characters. This is a strong debut.”
—Chris Abani
“Again and again, though the force of the narrative drove me relentlessly onward, I would stop simply to marvel. Extraordinary Renditions is an extraordinary debut.”
—Julia Glass
“Andrew Ervin gives us crooked military men, postmodern artists, marauding skinheads and concert musicians, all rendered in nimble prose that never fails to shock and delight. An awesome debut.”
—J. Robert Lennon
“His characters may be lost—even the one native is a foreigner—but Andrew Ervin is a sharp-eyed, sure-handed guide.”
—Stewart O’Nan
“Extraordinary Renditions’ clear tenor hearkens the ancient masters of the novel in the most sublime way, even as it points toward that which is post-mastery.”
—Bayo Ojikutu
