The Apollo choices have been masterful. The list is thought-provoking, eye-opening, inspired and inspiring

The Big Issue

Truly masterful, as funny as it is profound and insightful … Published in 1969, the same year as James Plunkett's superb Dublin epic Strumpet City, The Hungry Grass is a far more sophisticated narrative, an Irish Stoner that has the pathos of John Williams's quiet American classic but also adds biting humour

Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times

The very best portrait of a priest in Irish fiction... It is a chilling yet deeply compassionate study of a man whose growth is stunted both by choice and by circumstances. The environment is perfectly realised; the small clashes, the irritations, the sense of static life, the greed and ambition of small-town politics... This is a very fine novel'

Irish Times

tylistic and sharp... What Powers has managed to do here in this quiet novel is create a character of depth and complexity... The Hungry Grass is a find'

Sunday Independent

Daring... Beautifully written... It is a masterpiece'

RTÉ Radio

An inspired reissuing of Power's superb novel, which was first published in 1969, reveals a writer with much in common with the great William Trevor... Easily one of the finest Irish novels ever written – no tricks, just genius'

Irish Times