“Reads as China's Midnight's Children. An utterly remarkable novel, it is certainly a very different book from Rushdie's but just as important in its historical and cultural sweep....Barker's storytelling is lively and addictive....She has an eye for the absurd and darkly comic.” —The Independent (UK)

"Suspend your disbelief, flow along with this wonderful book, like the crazy traffic flowing around Beijing's six ring roads...The book moves effortlessly from past to present and back again....Masterful." —The Guardian (UK)

"Barker resembles David Mitchell in the ability to weave together past and present in a convincing, and ultimately intriguing, manner."—Sydney Morning Herald

“A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal and a vivid tapestry of the individual's struggle against the tyranny of history, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read all year.”
—Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master's Son (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2013)

“A brilliant, mind-expanding and wildly original novel.”
—Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee

“An extraordinary novel. Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, The Incarnations takes the reader on an intimate and mesmerizing journey through Chinese history. Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written one of the most remarkable novels of recent years.”
—John Boyne

“Invigorating. To recreate convincingly a single historical period is an achievement. To recreate six is to approach virtuosity....Deft, smart, various and warm: a very good book indeed.” —Sunday Business Post (UK)

“What a ferociously talented writer Susan Barker is. The Incarnations is a hallucinatory ride. Highly recommended”
—Anna Hope, author of Wake

“Remarkable…Ambitious in scope, painstakingly researched and most importantly, a gripping read.”
—Publishing Perspectives

“Light and often witty...There is tragedy, though perhaps not where the reader expects it, but there is also hope.”
—Thatsmags.com (China)

“Not since Jung Chang's Wild Swans has been such a visceral re-telling of the old days.” —Open Magazine (India)