Was truly excited to read this from Gurney, who won the Nobel Prize recently. Truly topped their previous work with this one. Will need to reread it once it's released, but loved it so.

I was disappointed and underwhelmed by this novel from the highly praised Nobel winner. Yes, the writing is wonderfully calm yet clear, the characters intriguing, and the cultural portrait crisp. Yet the story itself seems meandering and ultimately predictable. Pacing also seemed odd. A great deal of scene- and character- setting, and then some swift developments late on.
I’m probably a lone dissenting voice here, nevertheless I had greater expectations.