Small G

Patricia Highsmith's final novel is an intricate exploration of love and sexuality, spite and the triumph of human kindness. At the 'Small g', a seedy Zurich bar known for its not exclusively gay clientele, the lives of a small community are played out one summer, following the brutal murder of young Petey Ritter, one of the bar's regulars.
'Years of producing tight, energetic thrillers has honed down Highsmith's style, and this book, with its childlike simplicity, is quite wonderfully readable' Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday
'All the qualities we love about Highsmith's work . . . are here in abundance . . .her characters astonish themselves, and us, by discovering love in the very last places they ever expected to find it' O Magazine
'What is most remarkable in this novel is the empathy . . . with which Highsmith writes about gay men . . . one can imagine the Small g existing, a piquant mixture of bohemianism and respectability, exactly as Highsmith describes it' Francis King, Spectator

From the first page it is recognizably authentic Highsmith. Perhaps approaching her lesbian novel Carol in tenderness and theme, it has a serenity rarely found in Highsmith's world
Years of producing tight, energetic thrillers has honed down Highsmith's style, and in this book, with its child-like simplicity, is quite wonderfully readable
The novel is a delight . . . all the more so for its untypically sunny atmosphere
Small g is a welcome addition to Highsmith's published novels, offering readers an insight into a fascinating aspect of Swiss society and an opportunity to explore Highsmith's final concerns and obsessions
Its superabundance of characters is only one of the elements that give Small g its air of Shakespearean complexity
What is most remarkable in this novel is the empathy . . . with which Highsmith writes about gay men . . . one can imagine the Small g existing, a piquant mixture of bohemianism and respectability, exactly as Highsmith describes it
Like Ripley, [Highsmith's characters] burn in a reader's memory
All the qualities we love about Highsmith's work . . . are here in abundance . . . her characters astonish themselves, and us, by discovering love in the very last places they ever expected to find it