- Published: 21 August 1997
- ISBN: 9781860463655
- Imprint: Vintage Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 96
- RRP: $22.99
Reunion
- Published: 21 August 1997
- ISBN: 9781860463655
- Imprint: Vintage Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 96
- RRP: $22.99
Melancholy and elegiac with a very effective final twist of the plot
The Times
Finely concise, tender and most painful
Sunday Times
A minor masterpiece. Uhlman succeeds in lending his narrative a musical quality which is both haunting and lyrical
Arthur Koestler
An exquisite novella such as Fred Uhlman's Reunion...is clearly worth much more than its weight or cover price and certainly more than the latest prize-winning bit of puff
Guardian
A book that changed me? Reunion by Fred Uhlman. I read it 20 years ago. It changed my view on Judaism
Jeffrey Archer
A profound meditation upon the nature of friendship. The first line alone is enough to send a tingle up your spine: 'He came into my life in February 1932 and never left it again'
Guardian
The interesting question now is what is the "greatest book we’ve never heard of" (Stoner’s tag)? Fred Uhlman’s Reunion (1971), to be published in July, might follow in Stoner’s footsteps... Watch this space
Independent
I think if I had to agitate for one under-mentioned title it would probably be Reunion... Maybe readers think they have read the story before. But I urge you to give it a try; it is short, and moving. I know that’s not the same as stumbling across it somewhere in the stacks...but perhaps it can qualify as a treasure all the same
Paris Review
Originally published in 1971, apparently, Reunion passed me by then but reading it now it certainly packs a punch
Guy Pringle, Nudge
I read it in a gulp...very powerful
Deborah Moggach
From the first tingle-making line...I was mesmerised by Uhlman’s heart-breaking story
Daily Mail
A little masterpiece
Val Hennessy, Daily Mail
I loved the mood of the book — it’s nostalgic and wistful without being sentimental — and it’s written in a perfectly matter-of-fact way but is done so eloquently the sentences feel as if they’ve been spun from silk. It’s a quick read, too, but it’s the kind of story that stays with you
Reading Matters
Devastating
Fiona Wilson, The Times
Never hits a false note
i (The paper for today)
It’s a good novel, a short novel, quickly and easily read, but it’s a novel that demonstrates Uhlman’s great skill because when you arrive at the last sentence (the very last sentence of the novel), you see you’ve actually missed a different arc entirely. It is this twist in the tail that has you both retreating back through the book but also (curse them) recommending it to others as well
Book Munch
I loved Reunion and found it very moving. It’s a rediscovered novella, only 80 pages long, a real gem about how friendship can be challenged by historical circumstance
John Boyne
A brilliant work of art that deserves a far wider readership
Ian McEwan
Extraordinary…one of literature’s most shattering final sentences
New York Times
Uhlman writes with a painter’s eye for the significant detail, and with the precision of someone who has learned a second language in adulthood. Every word is exactly what it must, and could only, be. Every sentence is characterized by delicacy, concision, and finesse
Church Times
Shimmers above so much of the new fiction… Brings a lump to the throat in its final line
Arifa Akbar, Independent
A daring miracle of narrative simplicity, its end comes at you like a torch in a long tunnel.
Rachel Cooke, Observer
As perfect as it is powerful
Irish Times
Quite simply, a perfect work of art. With the utmost delicacy and care, Uhlman distils all the rage and tragedy of the second world war into one brief childhood friendship, and the final line is the most shattering of any novel I know. It is one of those books that is an unfailing test of character: if you give it to someone, and they don’t like it, you should sever all ties, and possibly call the police
Sarah Perry, Guardian, Book of the Year
A perfect little gem of a story with a kick in the tail — and a resonance that rings louder than ever just when you think the story is over
Meg Rosoff
Reunion resembles that other small masterpiece, Death in Venice, by Uhlman’s compatriot Thomas Mann. Its setting may be drastically different but, in a classic, what prevails is strength of spirit over the will to power.
Amanda Hopkinson, Jewish Chronicle
[A] touching novel.
David Nicholls, Observer, Book of the Year
A beautiful story
Jeffrey Archer, Daily Express
Melancholy and elegiac with a very effective final twist of the plot
The Times
Finely concise, tender and most painful
Sunday Times
A minor masterpiece. Uhlman succeeds in lending his narrative a musical quality which is both haunting and lyrical
Arthur Koestler
An exquisite novella such as Fred Uhlman's Reunion...is clearly worth much more than its weight or cover price and certainly more than the latest prize-winning bit of puff
Guardian
A book that changed me? Reunion by Fred Uhlman. I read it 20 years ago. It changed my view on Judaism
Jeffrey Archer
A profound meditation upon the nature of friendship. The first line alone is enough to send a tingle up your spine: 'He came into my life in February 1932 and never left it again'
Guardian