“Very clever and very funny, Gold goes straight to the heart. Dan Rhodes is a true original, with a fresh, funny, quirky style that seems to owe nothing to other writers, and everything to his own powers of invention.” —Hilary Mantel, author of A Change of Climate and A Place of Greater Safety

“Rhodes’s fans already know about his skill with character, his brilliant sense of humour and ability to pull the rug from under the reader at just the right moment, but Gold is an even more emotionally powerful read than anything he’s written before. This tale of a Japanese woman struggling to find her place in a small Welsh community is Rhodes at his very best, and that’s as good as it gets.” —Matt Thorne, author of Cherry

“This depiction of a Japanese girl trying to understand the customs of a small Welsh town was both hilarious and heartbreaking . . . He’s one of a small number of contemporary novelists who find beauty in the most straitened circumstances.” —Matt Thorne, The Independent (UK)

“I was charmed and dazzled by this tale.” —Sue Baker, Publishing News (UK)

“Dan Rhodes is a . . . stylish writer.” —The Star-Ledger

“This tenderly funny tale . . . traces the sweetly unsentimental course of Miyuki Woodward’s annual holiday at a rustic Welsh coastal cottage. . . . Rhodes’s tale features lovely touches (such as the Children from Previous Relationships, a local band that’s never played in public), and effortlessly ends an immaculately crafted story of minor perturbations and their unpredictable outcomes.” —Publishers Weekly

“It’s difficult enough to write funnily, but to achieve what Rhodes does here and effortlessly sustain immaculate comic timing throughout a novel—well, that’s just rude. What could have been merely an amusing tale of Welsh country life acquires a touching depth as unexpected tragedy seeps through.” —Addie Chinn, Time Out (London)

“It is a testament to Rhodes’s powers that he compels and grips largely trough backstory, vignette, digression and location. In all his books, there beats a heart so sweet that to encounter it can be painful; this hones even further the razor edges of the moments of heartbreak when they come. . . . Absolutely flawless comic writing . . . Stylistically, it’s as clear as vodka, straightforward and suggestive. . . . Dylan Thomas described Under Milk Wood as ‘a green-leaved sermon on the innocence of men’ and that also neatly sums up Gold. It’s original, fresh and funny.” —Niall Griffiths, Observer (London)

“Both hilarious and affecting, perhaps even profound. His is a special and distinctive talent.” —Laurence Phelan, Independent (London) (5 stars)

“[This] volume . . . features enough vintage Rhodes, hilarious and heartwarming, to serve as an . . . introduction to one of Britain’s most talented and irrepressible young authors . . . Few writers could so convincingly conjure up in fewer than 200 pages the quirky world of Miyuki Woodward, a half-Japanese, half-Welsh lesbian, and the tiny Welsh coastal village in which the events of Gold are set . . . One of the most remarkable aspects of Gold is the close attention paid to peripheral characters and setting. Woven into the narrative are countless back-stories that not only give shape to what could otherwise have been mere caricatures but also lend authenticity to the depiction of life in a rural Welsh community . . . Dan Rhodes is known for writing fiction that explores the absurdity of life and love in a faux-naif prose style that just as easily succeeds at drawing peals of laughter as it does breaking the heart. In this respect, Gold shines.” —Jules Hurtado, The Bloomsbury Review