William Boyd's new novel, The Romantic, is available to pre-order now

One of the comic masterpieces Daily Telegraph

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Henderson Dores is an Englishman in New York - and completely out of his depth.

He should be concentrating on his job as an art assessor, but his complicated personal life keeps intruding. And that's before we even get to his sense of alienation, of being a fish out of water. For Henderson is a shy man lost in a country of extraverts and weirdos. Subway poets, loony millionaires, Bible-bashers and sharp-suited hoods stalk him wherever he goes. But it is only when he's sent to America's deep South to examine a rare collection of paintings that matters take a life-threatening turn. Still, if it doesn't kill you, they say it can only make you stronger . . .

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Boyd's humour, timed to a tee, always raps out the truth Mail on Sunday

Extremely funny. Boyd does not pass up a single comic turn Sunday Telegraph

Splittlingly shrewd and engaging Guardian

The wry laughter never stops . . . the shrewdest pages yet from a master of witty manipulation Observer