"At its finest, Clear is a love letter to the scorching power of language, a power that Davies has long understood. She writes with amazing economy: in a few words she can summon worlds… Davies is a writer of immense talent and deep humanity, capable of balancing devastating audacity with equally devastating restraint."
—The Guardian

"There is great pleasure to be found of Davies’s clear and calm prose, her wry asides and deep love of language, and in the book’s quiet optimism. It is a slim, masterfully carved gem of a story that you won’t easily forget: slip it into your pocket."
—Evening Standard

"Davies’ characteristically nimble evocation of place is in evidence throughout… Amid the barbarity of mass evictions, with all their modern resonances, Davies ultimately offers us a story that is hopeful and humane."
—Irish Times

"A lucid and stylish prose writer, Davies is excellent at revealing characters through the language they use and through the gestures and tonal shifts that betray their weaknesses, their prejudices and hollow sentiments… what Clear asks of us in its final pages is a leap of faith more usual in fables and fairy tales – there is also something gratifying in the suggestion, however unlikely, that love, even love of the most improbable kind, can still blossom in a world run by men like Lowrie and Strachan."
—Times Literary Supplement

"Another epic in miniature. Davies manages to pack in more drama and nuance into 160 pages than other authors manage in novels twice that length."
—The Spectator

"Her own language is a marvel of eloquent restraint."
—The Observer

"Wonderfully atmospheric writing."
—Sunday Times

"Painterly...Her grasp of historical mood rarely falters, and each scene is set with minimal description, leaving space for the reader’s imagination … Clear is a memorable and beautifully told tale"
—Scottish Herald

"[A] gripping novel from Welsh novelist Carys Davis, Clear...feels a bit like a thriller set against a history lesson rendered fantastically vivid...raising questions of belonging, ownership, and how we forge the bonds between people and place that are really durable."
—Vogue

"[Davies] writes epics in miniature…a tender, humane book."
—Times (London)

"A humane tale about individuals struggling to maintain dignity beneath competing systems of disenfranchisement...A deft and graceful yarn about language, love, and rebellion against the inhumane forces of history."
—Kirkus (starred review)

"Perceptive and beautiful...blooms with wondrous descriptions of the untamed highlands...this is divine"
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Spare and beautiful…A concise and haunting novel of souls anchored to the consequences of willfully circumscribed lives.”
—Booklist (starred review)

"The sheer beauty of Clear—with its perfect sentences, its austere tenderness, and its quiet sense of disquiet—feels timeless ... A poignant, profound depiction of both solitude and connection. Carys Davies has written a masterful, discreetly sublime book."
—Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust and In the Distance

“This intriguing and inventive story escorts the reader to an unexpectedly joyous ending that hints at our contemporary interest in new ideas of what a family might be. The writing style is one of clarity and reserved sensibility punctuated with an end-game needle jab. Not to be missed.”
—Annie Proulx, author of Barkskins

“Clear is a compact, taut and brilliant novel with an ingenious premise: one man is sent to evict another from his land, but suddenly requires the second man’s aid. Everything gets more complicated from there. The book is about belonging, a dying language, secrets, and a pistol in a box. I loved every page.”
—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land

"Clear is a love letter to a vanished way of life, to a landscape, and to human relationships. Captivating, tender, and satisfying, this is a novel to be savoured."
—Claire Fuller, author of Bitter Orange and The Memory of Animals

"A wonderfully humane and moving depiction of loneliness and the connections forged between strangers that transcend all barriers, even language."
—Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

"With Clear, Carys Davies has again done brilliantly what she does best - saying most by saying least. She has the rare gift of eloquent brevity — Clear is astute, moving, unexpected."
—Penelope Lively, author of The Family Garden and Life in the Garden

“An exquisite, hopeful masterpiece ... my favorite book of 2024 and probably many more years to come.”
—Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

"Tender, riveting and inventive is Clear, the newest offering and masterpiece from the brilliant Carys Davies. It will take your breath away… What a thrill."
—Sarah Jessica Parker