“‘Times have changed.’ We hear this a lot—and for the most part it’s true, but what if you lived the exact same storyline in different lifetimes? How much would really change? Time Squared has a clever and original answer. A love story that stays the same over different eras, this book by Lesley Krueger is a unique concept that ties in historical events, world wars, and women’s roles in society . . . leading to a surprising ending.”
—Rebecca Eckler, author of Knocked Up
“I’ll dive right in and tell you that the novel, Time Squared by Lesley Krueger, which I’ve loved more than I’ve loved than any book I’ve read in ages, could be billed as Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life meets Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, if we wanted to underline just how badly you really ought to read it. And oh, you really do.”
—Kerry Clare, editor of 49th Shelf
“Krueger’s portrait of artists as young men and women is alive with wit and rebellion—an aesthetic vivisection of the young Victorian age.”
—The Globe and Mail, on Mad Richard
“Krueger’s research is evident in every paragraph: from the use of authentic slang to richly sketched portraits of the lives of the era’s rich and poor, the book confidently transports the reader to another time.”
—Quill & Quire, on Mad Richard
“The knitting together of Charlotte Brontë’s and Richard Dadd’s different trajectories worked like a dream. I was enthralled.”
—Terry Gilliam on Mad Richard
“In this remarkable piece of historical fiction, Krueger (Drink the Sky) imaginatively delves into the life of Richard Dadd. . . . The two story lines . . . effectively juxtapose Dadd and Brontë, two very different people who travelled in similar circles during the same era and, more importantly, who were both entirely invested in what it means to be an artist. This question anchors the novel, adding depth and dimension to a terrific read.”
—Publishers Weekly on Mad Richard, starred review
“There is much to ponder in this elegant novel about the potentially catastrophic emotional toll of art, the irrational nature of love, the solitude of heartache, and what happens when one life touches another, however briefly.”
—Toronto Star, on Mad Richard
“By engaging us in two very different lives in a state of transformation, we become engaged in the process of what it means to become an individual, moral human being. It’s a powerful story about human strength and frailty. It touches something deep inside.”
—Toronto Star, on The Corner Garden
“Lesley Krueger . . . has perfectly captured the laconic tone of an intelligent teen who can still offer moments of bracing lucidity and keen observation. . . . The Corner Garden is an ambitious book. It starts innocently as a contemporary picaresque journey, then delves into a history lesson and the nature of evil.”
—The Globe and Mail, on The Corner Garden
“Part carefully-wrought thriller, part eco-excursion into the heart of darkness . . . a young woman struggles with questions of identity against the backdrop of modern Brazil. Her elegant prose is a pleasure to read, and when Krueger ratchets up the tension, we go with her, hearts in mouth. She has intriguing and serious things to say about human nature and the planet.”
—Quill & Quire, on Drink the Sky
“Drink the Sky captures both the precise local colour of Rio de Janeiro (where the author lived from 1988 to 1991) and the first-time visitor’s wide-eyed wonder. Krueger renders the exotic beauty of Brazil’s landscape and wildlife with rhapsodic authenticity. . . . The hidden story emerges piece by piece, as these things do, in a series of coincidences and unsuspected interrelations that weave the book’s two parallel plots into a tense finale. As a cleverly plotted mystery, the book succeeds in hooking the reader.”
—Toronto Star, on Drink the Sky