"Tempest . . . doesn't just leap off the page, but leaps into your throat and demands to be shouted all the way out." -- Marlon James

"Powerful and merciful." -- Ali Smith

"Tempest has an ability to write about big, metaphysical subjects in the most vernacular language." -- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times on HOLD YOUR OWN and BRAND NEW ANCIENTS

"One of the brightest British talents around. Her spoken-word performances have the metre and craft of traditional poetry, the kinetic agitation of hip-hop and the intimacy of a whispered heart-to-heart . . . drawing on ancient mythology and sermonic cadence to tell stories of the everyday." -- Guardian

"[The Bricks that Built the Houses] marks the arrival of a significant new voice . . . deeply affecting: cinematic in scope; touching in its emphatic humanity . . . Tempest's voice--by turns raging and tender--never falters. By the time the novel reaches its cleareyed climax, cleverly undercutting its own promised happy ending, the reader is left with the impression of a work that hums with human life." --The New York Times Book Review, Editors Choice

"Tempest has a knack for the devastating throwaway line--a skill-honed, no doubt, from years of rapping and spoken-word performances. Her work is rich with underlinable lines . . . Captivating." --The New Yorker on THE BRICKS THAT BUILT THE HOUSES

"Blake, Shakespeare, Eliot, the Wu-Tang Clan: when an artist's outlook on boundaries is so dizzyingly open, you long to know what happens next." --Guardian on THE BRICKS THAT BUILT THE HOUSES

"A novel that perfectly captures the modern trials and tribulations of youth and urban life in London." --BuzzFeed on THE BRICKS THAT BUILT THE HOUSES

"[Tempest is] a Zadie Smith if Smith were in her 20s again . . . An artistic prodigy . . . [Her] captivating The Bricks That Built the Houses is rich in detail, clever in plot and filled with characters who live on the edge but never quite give up." --Shelf Awareness on THE BRICKS THAT BUILT THE HOUSES

"Thrillingly good . . . Ms. Tempest stitches together words with such animate grace that language acquires an almost tactile quality, and the drama she unfolds . . . soars to operatic dimensions. . . . [An] hypnotically persuasive vision." --Charles Isherwood, New York Times on BRAND NEW ANCIENTS

"This feels a lot like Patti Smith here, in massive wordplay. The sorrows, loss, and rage are the same; and you have to admire the inner beauty coming to surface in serious ways; and more than that, applaud a young artist on a marvelous occasion for driving a dream to the fullest extent just for the flight of it." --Washington Review of Books on LET THEM EAT CHAOS