Critical Praise

"Reisman writes beautifully, a prose of restraint and grace. The achievement of this novel is that you are completely inside it from the moment you begin . . . This is a story that has the shape of life as it is truly lived."

——Anna Quindlen, Book-of-the-Month Club News

"Accomplished . . . Reisman's sumptuous prose, and her canny knowledge of the corrosive ways an average family can come apart, make The First Desire a lovely, absorbing companion."

——Karen Karbo, Entertainment Weekly (editor's choice)

"Dreamy . . . voluptuous . . . deeply felt . . . A book of sharp, intense nuances [whose] characters are evoked with extraordinary precision . . . It shares an intoxicating lyricism with the work of Ann Patchett and Andrea Barrett . . . Lovely and heartbreaking...[Reisman] is a striking new writer."

——Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Marvelous . . . Comparisons will follow-[e.g.] with Michael Cunningham or Julia Glass. But this writer tak[es] her own bold course . . . Exceptional."

——Elsbeth Lindner, The Boston Globe