Yes, it’s that time of year: when readers and reviewers look back on the year of books that was. So we thought we’d share some of the nice things people are saying about the terrific books we’ve been proud to publish in 2009.

‘One of my favourite books of the year was Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. It’s as enjoyable as it is formally inventive, and everything about it—the art, the drugs, the sex, the bananas, and finally the oblique and moving spiritual renunciation—was compelling and ingenious. It’s a rare book that takes its comedy as seriously as its philosophy—or vice versa—but in Dyer’s best novel yet, he has done just that.’ Guardian