"Look out in the autumn for Open Door by the much-praised Iosi Havilio, one of the launch titles on the And Other Stories list." Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
"Iosi Havilio’s remarkable first novel brings news of an intriguing world" Martin Schifino, The Independent
"With minimalist beauty and exquisite strangeness, Iosi Havilio offers a mesmerising addition to the literature of solitude." Chloe Aridjis
"An ambiguous tale that verges on dark comedy
With skill and subtlety, the novel hints that a whole society might labour under an illusion of liberty." The Economist
"Deliberately unshowy, so that plot twists can unfold in the quietest ways." Fatema Ahmed, Prospect
"There is a lot of sex and violence in Open Door, but it is never gratuitous.
You have in your hands a masterpiece." Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
"A moving and highly original novel. A good translation is one that convinces as a work in its own right. That is what we get here." Margaret Jull Costa, In Other Words (Journal of the British Centre for Literary Translation)
"Havilio handles the narrator’s listlessness with remarkable dexterity and maintains the reader’s attention throughout
a novel which will flourish under many re-readings." Annabella Massey, Cadaverine
"Open Door really surprised me, it doesn’t obey any of the laws of reading, it feels like it sprang out of nowhere." Beatriz Sarlo, Perfil
"Open Door is not a choral novel but a series of solitary songs sung in intimate keys. It contains a tale to mull over, a story not easy to forget." El País
"Living, some say, is much easier than thinking about life. This seems to be the almost unconscious guiding force that drives the heroine of Open Door, Iosi Havilio’s first book; a sober, restrained novel through which his mature craft shines." Susana Rosana, Clarín
"His opera prima touches nerves in the literature and history of his country, themes such as absence, identity and the conflict between city and country; but the style is unusual, a virtuoso display of muted prose. [...] Havilio may well be an attentive reader of Camus: a barely lyrical phrase such as I flop onto my back in the grass and the sky renders me speechless’’ recalls The Outsider. [...] The internal variety, the technical command, the originality of the setting and the freshness of the voice are all worthy of mention." Martin Schifino. Revista del Libro
"Open Door is a confusing, bewildering, riveting book; a paen, of sorts, to both the pursuit of solitude and the futility of that pursuit." Eleutherophobia
"It's not a difficult read, the translation is excellent and the language is used simply, to create a visual landscape which shifts under your feet, which you can't trust and need to consider carefully in different ways
For such a simple book, it holds some serious profundity". Gareth Buchaillard-Davies, metaliterature
"Look out in the autumn for Open Door by the much-praised Iosi Havilio, one of the launch titles on the And Other Stories list." Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
"Iosi Havilio’s remarkable first novel brings news of an intriguing world" Martin Schifino, The Independent
"With minimalist beauty and exquisite strangeness, Iosi Havilio offers a mesmerising addition to the literature of solitude." Chloe Aridjis
"An ambiguous tale that verges on dark comedy … With skill and subtlety, the novel hints that a whole society might labour under an illusion of liberty." The Economist
"Deliberately unshowy, so that plot twists can unfold in the quietest ways." Fatema Ahmed, Prospect
"There is a lot of sex and violence in Open Door, but it is never gratuitous. … You have in your hands a masterpiece." Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
"A moving and highly original novel. A good translation is one that convinces as a work in its own right. That is what we get here." Margaret Jull Costa, In Other Words (Journal of the British Centre for Literary Translation)
"Havilio handles the narrator’s listlessness with remarkable dexterity and maintains the reader’s attention throughout … a novel which will flourish under many re-readings." Annabella Massey, Cadaverine
"Open Door really surprised me, it doesn’t obey any of the laws of reading, it feels like it sprang out of nowhere." Beatriz Sarlo, Perfil
"Open Door is not a choral novel but a series of solitary songs sung in intimate keys. It contains a tale to mull over, a story not easy to forget." El País
"Living, some say, is much easier than thinking about life. This seems to be the almost unconscious guiding force that drives the heroine of Open Door, Iosi Havilio’s first book; a sober, restrained novel through which his mature craft shines." Susana Rosana, Clarín
"His opera prima touches nerves in the literature and history of his country, themes such as absence, identity and the conflict between city and country; but the style is unusual, a virtuoso display of muted prose. [...] Havilio may well be an attentive reader of Camus: a barely lyrical phrase such as ‘‘I flop onto my back in the grass and the sky renders me speechless’’ recalls The Outsider. [...] The internal variety, the technical command, the originality of the setting and the freshness of the voice are all worthy of mention." Martin Schifino. Revista del Libro
"Open Door is a confusing, bewildering, riveting book; a paen, of sorts, to both the pursuit of solitude and the futility of that pursuit." Eleutherophobia
"It's not a difficult read, the translation is excellent and the language is used simply, to create a visual landscape which shifts under your feet, which you can't trust and need to consider carefully in different ways … For such a simple book, it holds some serious profundity". Gareth Buchaillard-Davies, metaliterature