The Necessary Angel - Hardcover

[An] elegant, calm novel...Stead maintains an eye unblinkingly opposed to the transcendental * Guardian on MY NAME WAS JUDAS * Written with glowing simplicity and rich in delicate humour...[A] thought-provoking, witty and highly topical novel -- James Wood * Daily Telegraph on MY NAME WAS JUDAS * An elegant and assured novel * Scotsman on RISK * fine, thoughtful and insightful * Daily Mail on RISK * A few chapters in, I found myself in the grip of an artist with the ability to capture mood and beauty in a sentence * Financial Times on RISK * The novel reaches a climax which is surprising and unusual but apt. It is an enjoyable book, worldly and detached in tone, ruminative and amused, sophisticated without being pretentious. Stead captures the essence of Paris, its certainties and its contradictions, while simultaneously invoking the power of literature to alter and direct lives. -- Richard Hopton * Country & Townhouse Magazine * The novel crackles with the expected wit and erudition of Stead... Stead riffs with language, playing with words as he searches for le mot juste. The result is amusing and intoxicating * Stuff.co.nz * There is no finer author writing in New Zealand today [...] admire the artistry of a writer at the very top of his game. -- Gerri Kimber * Katherine Mansfield Society Journal * Paris suits Stead. There is a joie de vivre to the writing * NZ Listener * [a] masterfully structured story -- Zoe Apostolides * Financial Times * A gifted and intelligent novelist * Independent * [Stead] has the ability to set the scene in a few pithy lines and condense more telling details into a handful of pages than many writers manage in their entire chapters * Sunday Times * A languid yet gripping portrayal of modern literary life in Europe. * Good Reading magazine * C.K. Stead is challenging, fun, urbane and brilliant... Read him. -- John de Falbe * Spectator * Excellent . . . [a] fictional gem -- David Grylls * Sunday Times *

C. K. Stead is an award-winning novelist, literary critic, poet, essayist and emeritus professor of English at the University of Auckland. He was the 2015-17 New Zealand Poet Laureate, has won the Prime Minister's Award for Literature, and is a Member of the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour possible in New Zealand.