Thirty Girls

Reviews

“This long-awaited novel combines the stories of a Ugandan girl abducted by a militant group and an American writer covering the violence. It’s heavy subject matter, to be sure, but Minot transcends the brutality with the overwhelming power of her prose.”

“Daring…Minot’s clearly sculpted prose and capacity to penetrate and open the mind and heart challenge us to step outside our comfort zone.”

“A novel of quiet humanity and probing intelligence…Minot tells her two stories in alternating chapters…The novel’s dramatic ending shows that brutality can happen to anyone. In Thirty Girls, Susan Minot takes huge questions and examines them with both a delicate touch and a clear-eyed, unyielding scrutiny.”

“Minot’s writing is so potent and the story told so tragic, the novel sears the mind.”

“Transfixing.”

“Clear and searing…Pulls you in from the first page…A book that looks hard at trauma, love, and humanity.”

“Dreamlike…Though the shifting narratives start out highlighting the stark contrasts between the two worlds, they eventually collide as violence enters the privileged white enclave…A deeply affecting title that manages to express weighty sentiments and horrific events with subtlety and poetry.”

“Spellbinding Minot, a writer of exquisite perception and nuance, contrasts Esther’s and Jane’s radically different, yet profoundly transforming journeys in a perfectly choreographed, slow-motion, devastatingly revealing collision of realities. So sure yet light is Minot’s touch in this master work, so piercing yet respectful her insights into suffering and strength, that she dramatizes horrific truths, obdurate mysteries, and painful recognition with both bone-deep understanding and breathtaking beauty.”

“With brilliantly effective understatement, the novel conveys Esther’s complex psychological evolution—the emotional blankness that allows her to survive horrendous experiences, as well as the feelings of shame and guilt that threaten to overwhelm her at times.”

“Unerring pacing and pitch-perfect accents characterize Robin Miles’ masterful presentation of this difficult, yet wonderful, story. Minot’s powerful, fact-based novel…does not sensationalize the brutality and heartbreak the characters experience, and Miles’ delivery blends understated emotion and crisp objectivity.”

“Thirty Girls is a novel as raw, beautiful, and seemingly serendipitous as the politics, landscape, and culture of the sub-Saharan Africa it describes.”

“Riveting…Heartbreaking…Hauntingly beautiful prose.”

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