<i>Heart Sutra</i>...has <b>startling pleasures</b>... similes are sharp, synaesthetic and anchored in the lives of the characters
The Telegraph
<i>Heart Sutra </i>is a <b>warm-hearted</b>, if not gentle, satire that skewers religious institutions without mocking faith itself . . . <b>A deeply satisfying read</b> . . . Yan's storytelling has a <b>luminous, irrepressible quality</b>
- Lily Meyer, NPR
<b>Picaresque</b>, but with serious matters of <b>faith, love, and political wrangling</b> at its <b>fast-beating heart</b>
Kirkus (starred review)
<i>Heart Sutra </i>brings <b>clarity </b>to the dynamic and fraught relations between organised religion and the party on a broader scale and <b>does not shy from difficult histories</b>
- Bryan Karetnyk, Financial Times
<b>[An] otherworldly novel</b>
Asian Art Newspaper, *Books of the Year*