Not only an impressive but an immediately appealing novel ... The Issa Valley has the sensuousness and immediacy one associates with novels apparently inspired by the writer's own childhood recollections: David Copperfield and The Mill on the Floss come to mind * Times Literary Supplement * Nothing rings false in this poetic and realistic tale. Even the scenes that ... belong to another time and place will hold your attention to the end -- Elie Wiesel A lyrical account of a rural boyhood, dominated by family, nature and village life ... One is constantly aware of being in the hands of a masterof a talent that is original, unhurried, almost serene ... He is a remarkable writer -- Larry McMurty An idyll of immense charm and poetic depth ... It takes a masterpiece to reveal the sheer unreality of our modern creative modes and poses, and Milosz's novel is such a masterpiece -- John Bayley * The New York Review of Books *
