A wry, melancholy, beautiful first novel . . . The language is everywhere precise and graceful . . . Genius * * Guardian * * Beautifully detailed and honed . . . a poetic testament to the wild, unchartable experience of human loving . . . Sherrill's vision is at once melancholy and deeply affirming. Somewhere in M's inchoate mass of sensation there exists a sharp spark of hope * * Observer * * Immaculate . . . Sherrill is a beautiful writer . . . he finds the drama to keep you reading, your heart in your mouth, to the conclusion's defiant roar of hope * * Telegraph * * At once ugly, tender and hopeful . . . Sherrill's Minotaur allows for allusive readings but remains rootedly among us * * Independent * * Exceptional . . . Steven Sherrill uses M as the vehicle for a finely observed and compassionate portrayal of humanity in all its guises * * Irish Independent * * This is the most surreal slab of realism you will read all year. Unique and rather wonderful * * Arena * * Sherrill's dense, poetic style never falters in its creation of a perfect metaphor for the eternal outsider -- CAROL BIRCH * * Wall Street Journal * * [A] brilliant imagination . . . Every page is a delight worth savouring for a millennium or two * * USA Today * * Sherrill's narrative, with its dreamlike pace, shows myth coexisting with reality as naturally as it does in ancient epic * * Publisher's Weekly * *

Five thousand years after leaving the Cretan Labyrinth, the Minotaur - or M as he is known to his colleagues - is working as a line chef at Grub's Rib in Carolina, keeping his horns down, trying in vain to put his past behind him. He leads an ordered lifestyle in a shabby trailer park where he tinkers with cars, writes and re-writes to-do lists and observes the haphazard goings on around him. Outwardly controlled, M tries to hide his emotional turmoil as he is transported deeper into the human world of deceit, confusion and need.