The High Places: Winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize 2017

McFarlane has a gift for cutting into a story at precisely the right angle . . . Her writing is skilled; her point of view is unique
Deliciously unsettling, [McFarlane's] characters act and react in unexpected ways, taking both reader and themselves by surprise
In her distinct and unusual voice - the disconcerting tone and dry humour are reminiscent of Margaret Atwood or Valerie Martin - McFarlane examines relationships with uncomfortable clarity and insight, observing the subtext of human behaviour while acknowledging a mysterious power behind the reality we think we know
Like a fascinating box of brightly coloured, faintly surreal toys
While lesser writers use similes to render descriptions more vivid, McFarlane's heighten aspects of her characters and advance her plots
A terrific collection . . . a baker's dozen of powerful stories
While the stories in The High Places are imaginative, playful, and intellectually sophisticated, it is no overstatement to suggest that their power resides in the authority of McFarlane's style, not just in her ideas. McFarlane's sentences fizz with imagery . . . The resultant voice is difficult to parse - highly assured, comic but kind, an effervescent admixture of fable, magic realism, and irony . . . remarkable
Superb . . . It's not just that McFarlane's descriptions are beautiful prose, though they are. The High Places is more deliberate than that, and more intelligent. McFarlane strikes an emotional note on every page, whether it be humour or nostalgia or discomfort or joy . . . Nothing is forced and the reason I can't pick my favourite is that every one of the thirteen stories is a winner
McFarlane has an intelligent and distinctive voice and she's a marvel at conjuring atmosphere
McFarlane writes with a deceptively plain hand, and her style gives shape to the unanswered questions of how well we can ever know each other or ourselves . . . The writing is clever and skilful in spades
McFarlane has a knack for bringing out the macabre . . . and shows herself as an exceptionally fine writer of the ways coercion and care entangle us