“As I read 'The Infinities', with its magical, playful richness, its sensuous delight in the power of language to convey the strangeness and beauty of being human, I wondered if J. M. Coetzee, with his bleak, pared-down, elemental view of the world, had ever read a Banville and, if he had, whether he had envied him his astonishing powers.”

British novelist, originally from South Africa

Justin Cartwright was a British novelist originally from South Africa. He is known for his fiction, and his work placed him among contemporary writers who wrote across national and cultural settings. Cartwright wrote novels that drew on his background and perspective as a South African-born British author. His reputation rests on fiction rather than on any single public role, and his books are associated with careful observation of character and society.