‘Lux emerges as an unusual and accomplished page turner. It’s ambitious, incredibly detailed … the clarity and beauty of the prose is a joy. An overwhelming sense of destiny is palpable and defining.’
Kevin O’Sullivan, Irish Examiner
‘Cook's quietly masterful prose builds a huge world, unsentimental, numinous and deeply moving. Longing, appetite, love, grief, regret and their consequences: Lux, Wyatt's falcon, is named for the luxury of courts and concupiscence but also the light of the desert, of song, of David's Yahweh. This novel is a joy to read.’
Susan Hitch
‘Almost two decades in the making, Lux is well worth the wait. Like its predecessor Achilles, it’s an ambitious and compelling novel, equally vivid in its conjuring of myth and history, particularly striking in its portrayal of religious belief under pressure, the nature of holiness and the sacred. It’s a remarkable book.’
Michael Symmons Roberts, author of Drysalter
‘Cook writes with impressive empathy … There is both a painterly eye and a physicality about her prose.’
Diana Hendry, The Spectator
‘Cook’s multilayered prose is rich, luminous, and pays particular attention to the perspectives of women, all but ignored in the original David story.’
Alastair Mabbott, The Herald
‘In her second novel, Elizabeth Cook has followed her own passions … to good effect. Her command of language, and of her material, makes this an extremely satisfying read.’
Anne Goodwin
‘A well-told thinker of a read.’
Jon Wise, Weekend Sport
‘Lux is a remarkable interweaving of one ancient king’s story and his place as redeemer within and beyond Judaism.’
Rabbi Dr Aviva Kipen, J-Wire
‘Intelligence, originality and poetic grace … Ms. Cook reflects on the momentous change by tenderly humanising all of these larger-than-life characters. Her portrayal of Bathsheba is both more compassionate and more convincing than the usual caricature of a power-hungry seductress. Her David, too, is remarkably approachable … Again and again in this discerning novel, sin and suffering culminate in a majestic work of humility and praise.’
Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
‘Cook writes beautiful and complicated prose, befitting of the subjects she chooses … Informed by the Judeo-Christian spiritual tradition without being subject to it, here is the rare book that functions on multiple levels, inspiring new ideas and insights with each re-reading … The most powerful chapters of Lux are those spent with women … Cook plucks these hollowed-out characters from Samuel and imbues them with souls. She circles the Bible story of David and Bathsheba, plumbs its depths and breathes life into it, creating the type of mannered, academic leaning novel that the English seem to adore … But press down firmly on the cover and the words, regardless of how beautiful they are, will flow out its sides like water from a sponge.’
Tara Cheesman, On the Seawall
‘An ambitious attempt to yoke together two narratives separated in time but not in their timeless resonances.’
Howard Cooper, Jewish Chronicle
