‘Charlotte Mendelson is much admired by the cognoscenti and Almost English ought to be a bestseller. The account of a girl from a family of Hungarian aunts, dealing with love and old lechers at a ghastly boarding school in the 1980s, is sheer bliss — pure rueful comedy with endless resourcefulness... I adore her novels and wish there were many more of them...The [Booker] shortlist should comprise McCann, Tóibín, Mendelson, Crace, House and Catton. House’s novel is the one you ought to read, and Mendelson’s the one that everyone will read and love’ Philip Hensher, Spectator

‘Her angst will ring toe-curlingly true for anyone who has tried to forget the years 15 to 18. It’s an itchy, humiliating, lusty, desperate time and Mendelson depicts it with such immediacy that you will swear you can smell Clearasil...a delicious jumble of tragi-comedy that should ensure an easy jump from the Booker longlist to the short’ The Times

‘Charlotte Mendelson has said that she’s drawn to dysfunctional families with secrets. Her fourth novel, longlisted for the Booker Prize, harvests more strange fruit from this fertile soil...Marina is an excruciatingly authentic adolescent: self-obsessed, self-loathing and crashingly gauche in adult company. There are exquisitely embarrassing moments both in her stumbling adventures and in her mother’s. This is a very funny novel, dancing close to farce without ever mistreating its characters. Even Laura, who has hit her forties while avoiding adulthood, is drawn with great tenderness. It is Laura and Marina’s story, but the Hungarian sisters have several scene-stealing turns. Reading Mendelson’s easy, assured prose is like sinking into something soft and velvety. You almost sigh with pleasure...this is such a warm book, my advice is simply to sit back and enjoy it’ Telegraph

‘This Booker longlisted novel muses on family and what it means to be English...We didn’t want it to end’ Grazia

‘This is a coming-of-age story that fuses an English boarding school farce with a Chekhovian tragicomedy — but always has something of a fairytale running through it’ Evening Standard

‘Almost English is long-listed for this year’s Man Booker Prize, and Charlotte Mendelson writes of the inner monologues and quiet frustrations that plague an all-female, half-Hungarian household trying to fit into society with a wry humour that carries echoes of Zadie Smith and Zoe Heller’ Stylist Top 10 must-reads of August

‘The Booker longlisted novel is a warm, wry and lively account of teenager Marina ...the humanity in Mendelson’s observations and her clever, comic writing make this a sparkling treat’ Metro 

‘I was thoroughly beguiled by Charlotte Mendelson’s Almost English...This is a wonderful novel and the descriptions of both Hungarian food and pronunciation are delightful. Von-darefool, dar-link’ Bookseller 

'Mendelson's account of imperfect escape is as witty as it is painful' Guardian, Holiday reading: the best books to pack this summer feature

‘Mendelson’s keen eye for what makes relationships tick has already led to a place on the shortlist for the Women’s (formerly Orange) Prize and new novel Almost English is as good as we’d hoped...This funny, wise and heart-warming 1980s-set novel is perfect summer reading’ Elle

‘There can’t possibly exist anyone who escaped adolescence without feeling like an outsider at one point or another. So everyone should be able to empathise with Marina, the outwardly reserved but inwardly passionate teenager at the centre of this new offering from the author of When We Were Bad...This is a fun, fierce story about love, family, being yourself and ‘the ugly years’’ Psychologies

‘I loved Mendelson’s last book When We Were Bad – and this one’s just as good... This story is full of sharp observations and touching characters’ Essentials