'Sweeping, powerful, epic'
- The Times
'Brutal but brilliant... Full of heart-pounding suspense... Magee offers an insight both into the deprivation experienced by ordinary soldiers and the excesses of those in power... An impressive, even stunning debut'
- Sunday Times (Ireland)
'An engaging and beautifully written novel, with an emotional resonance that remains long after you've closed the book. It succeeds in doing what only the best historical novels can do - making the past feel present'
- Independent
'A novel made all the more harrowing by its extreme readability'
- Observer
'A violent, elegant, unsentimental journey through hell and halfway back. This is an outstanding novel by a writer of huge talent and unusual candour.'
- Chris Cleave
'The Undertaking is written with sympathy and skill. The narrative is tense and engaging, filled with complex undertones, impelled by an urgency and a deep involvement with the characters.'
- Colm Toibin
'A bold and unsettling feat of empathy, all the more daring for its taut, beautifully understated style'
- A.D. Miller