The State of the Novel: Britain and Beyond

"Head contemplates the contemporary novel and its readers, scholarly and general, offering a reminder of the form's potential. Serious fiction interrogates social and political issues and plays an important part in the ‘process of acculturation’ and in the formation of identity and understanding of the self.” (CHOICE, March 2009)

"The first half of Head's book benefits from a tight focus on analysing the relationship between the contemporary cultural fields on England and the US, and the literary novel genre … .I particularly liked the readings Head offers of the peculiarly British sub-genre of the 'seaside novel' ". (Times Higher Education Supplement, January 2009)

"Few critics have mastered the terrain of contemporary British fiction as Dominic Head has done, and that mastery is fully evidenced here."
–Jim English, University of Pennsylvania

"The State of the Novel is perceptive, lucid, intelligent, and accessible throughout. A welcome addition to critical work on contemporary fiction, which should appeal to diverse readerships."
–Andrzej Gasiorek, University of Birmingham