'A study of male friendship turned sour, this novel chills and convinces.' * Financial Times * 'A dark, angry novel, tightly wound.' * Guardian * 'Wheatley is that increasingly rare type of young writer: he has experienced life, and it shows.' * Daily Mail * 'A great debut - If this book is anything to go by [Wheatley] will have a bright future.' * A Fiction Habit * 'Wheatley paints an interesting portrait of a stable situation disintegrating despite the best attempts to hold it together. Magnificent Joe is its author's first novel, and leaves me wondering where he might go next.' * Follow the Thread * 'Raw and powerful, yet compelling and emotional.' * New Books Magazine * 'This fine first book, half bildungsroman and half "state of England" novel, tells the story of Jim and his mates growing up in a village in the north of England - Wheatley can sure turn a phrase - A sweetly sad story.' * Publishers Weekly * 'Joe's the only magnificent one in this novel about working-class life - a grim and gritty novel, with a slight ray of hope at the end.' * Kirkus Reviews * 'A brutal, sometimes moving book...written with a spare, unsentimental swagger and plenty of confrontational coal-black humour.' * Metro * 'Taut, tense and tragic - a triumphant debut.' -- Ben Myers, author of Pig Iron 'Strong and spare - witty and utterly convincing.' -- Jane Rogers, author of The Testament of Jessie Lamb --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

What Joe needs is a friend. What Jim needs is a fresh start. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.