'MacLaverty locates the precise point where life bleeds into art, and art into life. Even in the briefest of his stories his themes emerge slowly, unforced, as if pondering themselves; like the best writers through the ages, he is confident and questioning, engaged and wise.'
- Hilary Mantel
'I can't think of another living writer whose attention to the small acts and seemingly inconsequential details of our lives unlocks so much emotional truth. Like Chekhov, MacLaverty writes as though everything is happening in front of our eyes, revealing, in story after story and in prose as clear as glass, the ineffable in the everyday.'
- Carys Davies
'Tragic, poignant, loving and often devastating in their truthfulness, peel back the seemingly placid surfaces of these beautifully conceived and sculpted stories and you'll find all the trials of the world laid bare. Blank Pages and Other Stories is a stunning achievement. Bernard MacLaverty is undoubtedly one of the finest and most gifted writers at work today, and in terms of the short story he has no better, and perhaps only a few equals. This is craft honed across a lifetime to utmost mastery, and work that sets a towering benchmark. An exquisite collection.'
- Billy O'Callaghan
'Bernard MacLaverty is a master of the second sort of story, writing it better than almost anyone else. By that I mean I can't think of anyone who does it better, not even Alice Munro, one of the few to have won the Nobel for a body of work principally composed of short stories. MacLaverty could well follow her.'
- Allan Massie, Scotsman