Below Luck Level

"Erasmus perfectly captures the emotional kaleidoscope experienced by adult children caring for parents with dementia or Alzheimer's disease in this emotional and darkly funny novel about what life looks like when you're forced to grieve for the living." - Sierra Godfrey, author of A Very Typical Family

"South African writer Erasmus' haunting North American debut begins and ends with a mother's death. Erasmus writes with raw urgency....Despite the unfolding tragedy, Erasmus deftly inserts surprising humor and charm, even channeling novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch, to create an empathic journey of death and, also, life." - Booklist

"Erasmus captures the heroic way in which those soldiering through trauma live simultaneously in the past and present, often because the future is shrouded in darkness and uncertainty. A beautiful book about a mother daughter bond in the face of fatal disease." - Zoe Fishman, The Fun Widow's Book Tour

"A haunting, funny exploration of Alzheimer's disease. Erasmus always surprises and delights." - William Saunderson Meyer, Sunday Times (South Africa)

"Harrowing and intensely sad, but Erasmus structures her novel so cleverly and has such a lively, witty style that you never feel bogged down [...] This is one of those rare books that will make you laugh and cry. Highly recommended." - Jane Vorster, YOU Magazine (South Africa)

"Barbara Erasmus has achieved something remarkable here. [...] Erasmus's elegant and skilled writing hooks you in from page one [...] The pace is beautifully controlled; there is no wallowing in horrors, though horrors are present." - Margaret Van Klemperer, The Witness (South Africa)

"Barbara Erasmus writes with acute perception about human behaviour, dissecting the motivations of her characters with a surgeon's skill. [...] [A] consummate story teller." - Janet Van Eeden, LitNet (South Africa)