“[Dublinesque] is enjoyable for its madcap energy, and its ability to relish its own absurdity and make well-worn literary references feel new.”

— Bookforum

“By lifting the heavy weight of the past, by setting irony against dogmatism and rigidity, Vila-Matas allows his characters, and us, to contemplate the future.”

— The New Yorker

“The accent of Vila-Matas's project falls on an accomplished romanticism conscious of its historicity, an artist-worship taken to maturity that concurrently absents and introduces itself into the work at every moment.”

— Los Angeles Review of Books

“A touching account of facing down mortality with a passion and an obsession for literature.”

— The New York Times Book Review

“It is Vila-Matas' style of writing that distinguishes him as one of the best living authors today, and what makes Dublinesque a must read book.”

— The Coffin Factory

“The Spanish novelist is a master of that problematic enterprise of literature: the death-defying highwire act of telling the truth through lies, of invoking reality through fiction.”

— The Millions

“Both shocking and gratifying for the reader...Dublinesque offers the reader layer upon layer of secrets that only she is privy to, and the effect is thrilling. ”

— Full Stop

“The novel is about the death of the author in more senses than one. Funerals make a kind of art out of death, and so does Dublinesque”

— London Review of Books

“From his latest raid into the literary jungle Vila-Matas has brought home a fine specimen of that most endangered of intellectual species, the literary publisher. ”

— The Guardian

“His writing is filled with withdrawal and disappearance, and so it is with Dublinesque, one of the most pleasurable and joyous novels of the year. ”

— The Independent