I Saw a Man

Praise

“An emotional suspense story. . . . Psychologically astute . . . lyrically beautiful. . . . Sheers is prodigiously talented.” —The New York Times
 
“Immensely pleasurable. . . . This is an exemplary thriller [with] expertly detonated surprises. . . .  A powerful, dark study of brutality, grief and guilt.” —Sunday Times (London)

“Sheers’ language is consistently rich and engaging, precisely calibrated. . . . The characters are complex and fully realized. . . . I Saw a Man treats guilt as a way of seeing, a lens that allows us to recognize otherwise lost bonds.” —Slate

“Gripping and stylish. . . . Sheers’s narrative is one of finely tuned suspense that erupts into visceral drama. . . . But this is also a novel driven by ideas. . . . Bold and satisfying.” —Daily Mail (UK)

“Quite simply the most stylish thriller I’ve read: always intelligent, beautifully made.” –Claire Lowdon, Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year (UK)

“Taut as a thriller, but resonant with motifs of intimacy and distance, guilt and redemption, and the nature of stories and storytelling. . . . It twists and turns and plays its cards close to its chest, showing its full hand only in the final pages, when we are forced to reassess everything that has gone before.” —The Guardian
 
“Deeply poignant. . . . A profound meditation on memory and mourning, Sheers’s novel captures the ‘unbearably fragile’ nature of joy.” —Observer (UK)
 
“Sheers’s thriller is driven as much by subtle ideas as suspense. . . . Psychologically astute.” —The Independent 
 
“A genuinely gripping piece of storytelling.” —Financial Times
 
“Extraordinarily tense and powerful, and beautifully written.” —Mail on Sunday (UK)
 
“A powerful moral thriller. . . . Sheers skillfully drip-feeds the reader his characters’ secrets and lies, including a remarkable sequence leading up to the book’s central, shocking moment of revelation. I Saw a Man’s ending is similarly bravura, elegantly throwing into new light much of what has gone before.” —Literary Review

“Manages to capture the rhythms, and fragility, of love and family; Sheers is quietly moving on the timeless topic of grief. . . . Sheers really does pull off the oft-trumpeted blending of the personal and political.” —Independent on Sunday

“Paul Auster meets Ian McEwan—a great success.” —NDR Kultur (Germany)