"The writing is ... like being unable to stop staring into the sun when you've been told it damages your eyes ...

... For example, when Angelica removes herself from her mother's overpowering orbit and settles in London, she meets the 'urban miniaturist' writer William Grieve. Gambotto-Burke's subsequent picture of the London literary scene is without rival. As for the fop who is William, he is one of the novel's finest cameo creations. 'It's not often,' he says to the young Angelica, 'that one meets one of your calibre at these interminable do's.'"
- Matthew Condon, The Age

"Challenging, erotic ... a triumph as a work of fiction."
- The Brisbane News

"Definitely not for the faint-hearted, but fans of Jay McInerney, Tom Wolfe or T. Coraghessan Boyle will enjoy this fierce bite into late twentieth century society life ... Gambotto has successfully combined humour, sarcasm and insight to write a novel that cuts through the polished facade ... Read it with grim and delighted pleasure."
- The Herald Sun

"Gambotto has hit on a winning formula - all life's excesses and vicissitudes are no match for her main character."
- The Morning Bulletin

"Beautiful ... florid and ornamental, lavish and extravagant."
- The Daily Telegraph

"Gambotto ... has the soul and style of a poet (Dylan Thomas came to my mind) ... a rapier wit and a mastery of the English language. I guarantee you have never read love scenes as beautifully and passionately phrased as these."
- The Bulletin (USA)

"Gambotto possesses a major literary talent."
- Who

"Dynasty written by a young Martin Amis on speed - full of gilded aristocrats, spleen and sex ... Tom Jones eat your heart out - Angelica leaves you for dead."
- Tempo

"The detail of the fiction verges on social reality - a warts and all rundown on Australian, American and UK society ... an erotic journey of self-acknowledgment ... Brilliance."
- Harper's Bazaar

"A brilliant first novel."
- Cosmopolitan

"Multi-layered and shimmering."
- Liquid Space Digital

"The writing is ... like being unable to stop staring into the sun when you've been told it damages your eyes ... [Gambotto's] picture of the London literary scene is without rival."
- The Age

"Incredibly sexy ... Sharply observant and at times almost brutal, [Gambotto] has an exquisite ability to dissect pomp and vanity. A brilliant read."
- Fairlady

"Poetical writing of the A.S. Byatt school."
- The Weekend Australian

"Gambotto writes with great sensitivity and also has a keen eye for satire, which she uses to great effect."
- Tatler (Book of the Month)

"A Victorian gothic moral tale crossed with Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives."
- Inside Melbourne

"This novel has it all - sex (lots and lots), adultery, murder, drugs, breakdowns and child abuse - with all the action underpinned by an obsessively passionate love story ... beautifully written, heavily descriptive, laden with caustic wit and cynicism and very, very amusing."
- Cleo

"Dense and lush ... the story of Angelica, a frighteningly intelligent young woman from a rich and privileged family who, after losing her beloved father, withdraws into a private world of deep thought and longed-for love ... Eventually [she] meets her angel/soulmate ... and is consumed by a spiritual and physical love so intense it is as if her sole reason for being is to consume him and be consumed by him ... beautiful and incisive prose."
- Townsville Bulletin

"Angelica, a stunningly beautiful heiress who was raised in England, is sexually athletic and deliciously wealthy ... kinky."
- The Times (UK)

Gambotto ... ignores the publishing convention that the average reader has the working vocabulary of a twelve-year-old ... [her] use of imagery and metaphor thus transcends most popular literature ... well worth reading."
- TableAus

"The empathy and passion of a Bronte novel."
- The Sunday Times

"Gambotto's portrait of modern society is painfully sharp and brings her journalist's eye to a new level. Her style, too, unfurls with cool control. Should set the tongues wagging ..."
- Sunday Life!

"Full of sex, caustic wit, glamorous people and plenty of wicked dialogue, The Pure Weight of the Heart ... is an ambitious and controversial debut. The characters are larger than life: the entrepreneurial stepfather; the stoned globetrotting model; the amoral artist; the naive American rich girl in pastel cashmere; the bitter socialite ... in spite of the rape, incest, death and dying, [it] is a shamelessly romantic love story."
- Melbourne Citysearch

"Brilliant! Move over, Anais Nin!"
- Daphne Guinness, The Sydney Morning Herald

"Out of the garret and onto the must-buy lists of [shoppers] all over the country."
- Panorama

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