'The quiet writers are the most disturbing, the way they look at the world without flinching and report without surprise or judgement. A witty and devastating debut.' — Peter Bishop

'Heartbreaking and unflinching, the novel exposes the growing, everyday fissures within contemporary life, the trauma of wounds widened by insurmountable cultural divisions, and the relationships of ordinary people that mend or break under the pressures of private upheaval and familial histories.' — Cyril Wong, author of Let Me Tell You Something About That Night

‘Real Differences is that rare and vital thing, a novel that asks what it takes to live by an ambitious moral code. In portraying the struggles, the self-doubt, the resentments of others, the disillusion and the ecstatic certainty that such commitment can bring, it grapples with some of the most profound questions faced by anyone who wonders, What should I do with my life?’ — Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker, author of Strangers Drowning: Impossible idealism, drastic choices, and the urge to help