"Grimaldi's Garden is Susan Knight's second novel -- and a very fine one it is, too. A disparate group of characters is in search of an apotheosis... A kind of a fairy-tale but one with a sturdy clarity of vision and in no way cloying. Perhaps a surfeit of themes at times, especially in the realm of sexual possibility, but a sure hand and an exactness of vision see Ms Knight through."

Vincent Banville, the Irish Times

"Susan Knight's second novel, Grimaldi's Garden flies along in a rushing series of vignettes that gradually intermingle the lives of her characters, most of whom 'keep moving to disguise the fact that they are standing still'. The title comes from the true story of Joseph Grimaldi, an Italian immigrant so oppressed by the greyness of London'that he filled his garden with paper flowers, transforming winter into summer. Knight's characters follow a similar course but this is not an escapist action in the usual sense. Rather they are escaping from the need to escape as their despair gives way to something more positive."

Reader's Choice, Giovanni Malito. Irish Times.

"Knight paints a picture of a contemporary Ireland. A place where individuals can find true happiness only outside their routine, mundane lives. The plot weaves together the lives of the dozen-plus population of Grimaldi's Garden. These portraits, initially disconcerting in their abruptness, develop into longer continuously shuffled cameos to reveal the metamorphosis the personas undergo. The writing is pacey, with the odd, jolting, cumbersome word.

Grimaldi's Garden may begin with the banality of the suburbs, but it ends up somewhere decidely more urbane. And along the way we are fed the tedium of humdrum lives. But appearances are deceptive. As we learn how precious little we know about those we think we know, the story looks at life from a different perspective; takes a glimpse beyond the obvious."

Ger Philpott, Sunday Tribune