The Disappearance Boy - Tapa dura

Neil Bartlett can conjure up a world like no-one else. This time, it's the lost world of 1950s seaside variety, and within that world he spins a tale of unlikely self-discovery that is by turns mysterious, tender and utterly compelling (S. J. Watson)

Neil Bartlett's ability to vividly evoke hidden lives is uncanny (Jake Arnott)

This book and its enchanting characters had me under their spell. I was bewitched (Sheila Hancock)

One of England's finest writers (Edmund White)

Bartlett is a seductive narrator. The Disappearance Boy is written in an intimate, conspiratorial tone familiar to readers of his Costa-nominated novel, Skin Lane . Bartlett is particularly good at evoking the faded glamour of the theatre and the brittle egos that compete offstage ... An entertaining routine and Bartlett pulls it off with aplomb (Independent)

Some arch narratorial interpolations apart, this is a properly engaging novel, blessed by vivid characters, a fascinating subject and an expertly evoked setting. Excellent (Daily Mail)

Expect a masterful and dark tale of love lost and found (Attitude Magazine)

Everything, anything, Neil Bartlett creates - novels, essays, plays, performances - excites me ... He's a romantic, in the best sense, loving the raunchy complexity of life and art. That love is in every line he writes (Lynne Tillman)

I loved The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett, about a boy and a magic trick in 1950s Brighton (Kate Pullinger, Observer Books of the Year)